The United Nations (UN) has released $5 million to aid flood victims in Nigeria. Over 300 people have died due to the flood caused by the rainy season, which has caused widespread damage.
The UN, in a statement, said the money from its Central Emergency Relief Fund will help “scale up the flood response and address critical needs in three of the most flood-affected states in Nigeria.
Data from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) shows that 1.2 million people in at least 31 out of Nigeria’s 36 states have been affected by the flood, and about 127,500 hectares of farmland have also been affected.
“Floods across Nigeria have created a crisis within a crisis,” said Mohamed Malick Fall, the UN coordinator in Nigeria.
“Millions of people were already facing critical levels of food insecurity before the floods because of economic hardships that have made it exceedingly difficult for the most vulnerable to feed themselves
and their families.
“The floods have compounded people’s suffering.”
The latest emergency assistance supplements the $6 million already provided by the Nigerian Humanitarian Fund. The flooding has also spiked the number of cholera cases in the West African country.
Last month, severe flooding resulted in the deaths of at least 31 individuals and displaced approximately 400,000 from their homes in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state in the northeastern region.
In 2022, over 500 individuals lost their lives and 1.4 million were forced to leave their homes in the country’s most severe floods in the past ten years.
