The UN announced on October 2, 2024 that it had released $5 million to help victims of floods in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa where the rainy season has caused widespread damage in different federated states.
« The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund has released $5 million to scale up flood response and address critical needs in three of Nigeria’s worst flood-affected states: Borno and Bauchi in the northeast , and Sokoto in the northwest“, the United Nations said in a statement released Wednesday evening.
According to Nigerian relief workers, the ongoing rainy season in Nigeria has caused “ more than 300 dead » and contra “ at least 1.2 million people » to leave their homes. “The floods in Nigeria have created a crisis within a crisis,” worried Mohamed M. Malick Fall, United Nations coordinator in Nigeria, in the same press release. “ Millions of people, the most vulnerable, were already seriously food insecure before the floods due to the country’s economic difficulties, and the floods have worsened (their) suffering“, he added.
Since coming to power in May 2023, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed has taken a series of measures (end of fuel subsidies, liberalization of the national currency, the naira) with the objective of reviving the economy and attracting investors. But in the short term, Nigerians have seen inflation, particularly fuel and food prices, skyrocket. In June, this inflation stabilized at 34.2%. The emergency aid announced by the United Nations is in addition to the $6 million already released by the Nigerian Humanitarian Fund.
Some Nigerian states affected by floods are also currently facing a resurgence of cholera. In September 2024, massive floods hit the city of Maiduguri, capital of Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, killing at least 37 people. In 2022, more than 500 people died and 1.4 million were displaced in the country’s worst floods in a decade.
© Afriquinfos & Agence France-Presse
