Nigeria: Hundreds of thousands in need of aid as flooding wipes out homes – WFP
In northeast Nigeria, UN humanitarians are rushing to assist scores of newly displaced people after torrential rains caused a dam to collapse and flood the area, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.
Alau Dam, located just over 10 miles to the south of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, collapsed in the middle of the night on Tuesday, forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes.
Emmanuel Bigenimana, the head of WFP’s office in Maiduguri, said that he managed to fly over the city with UN humanitarian air service (UNHAS) helicopter, dispatched by WFP to conduct a rapid assessment of damage and needs.
“What I have seen is really heartbreaking,” he said, describing homes, infrastructure, roads, schools, hospitals submerged by water.
“Many, many people - I'm talking about over 200,000 - 300,000 displaced people - are overcrowded in several IDP (internally displaced persons) camps and also on the streets.”
WFP reported that the dam collapse forced the river water to overrun 50 per cent of Maiduguri and the State Government issued evacuation orders to residents in the affected areas, while appealing for humanitarian support.
Speaking from the centre of one of the IDP camps, Mr. Bigenimana said that WFP has managed to open soup kitchens to provide hot meals to the affected people and was scaling up its response together with the authorities and partners.
The soup kitchens located in three camps - Teachers’ Village, Asheikh and Yerwa - aim to provide nutritious hot meals to “50,000 of the worst affected children, women, and men who have lost their homes,” WFP said, but more assistance is needed.
“This is really an additional burden to already existing crises,” WFP’s Mr. Bigenimana stressed. “This region has been facing conflict for a decade.”
Borno State was one of the areas worst-affected by the Boko Haram insurgency which, the UN said earlier this year, has been controlled to some extent.
“More recently, we have seen food inflation, food prices have been skyrocketing, really affecting millions of people who are facing food insecurity,” Mr. Bigenimana added.
The impacts of extreme weather are being felt severely across the country. Some 800,000 people in 29 states in Nigeria have been affected by floods as of September 2024, WFP said, and over 550,000 hectares of cropland have been flooded. As of March 2024 some 32 million people in the country were already facing acute hunger.
The UN’s food agency said that it needs $147.9 million to support food insecure people in Nigeria’s northeast over the coming six months.
For the flood-affected populations in Maiduguri, “recovery will take long,” Mr. Bigenimana said. “We need more resources to save lives and to put together efforts to respond to the crises - and also think of longer-term recovery and solutions.”
-Ends -
Story: Nigeria Floods WFP – 13 September 2024
TRT: 03’05”
SOURCE: WFP/UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 13 September 2024 - Maiduguri, Nigeria
SHOTLIST
1
1
1
Edited News | UNWOMEN
Aid agencies echoed wider warnings of growing signs of widespread starvation in Gaza on Tuesday, as UN-partnered international food security experts released their most dire assessment yet of the situation in the wartorn enclave.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , UNDP , UNHCR
Sudan: urgent help needed as more than 1.3 million war-displaced people begin to return home
As conflict rages on across parts of Sudan, pockets of relative safety have emerged in the past four month, spurring more than one million internally displaced Sudanese to make their way home, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM). A further 320,000 cross-border refugees have come back to Sudan since last year, mainly from Egypt and South Sudan, to assess the current situation before deciding to return to their country for good.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , WHO
Gaza: SOS messages describe people fainting from hunger; UN health worker detained
Worrying alerts from United Nations staff in Gaza who have been fainting from hunger and exhaustion over the past 48 hours have increased fears for people’s survival in the devastated enclave, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , UNOG
Over 11.6 million refugees risk losing aid access due to funding cuts, says UNHCR
Approximately one in three refugees and other vulnerable individuals normally supported by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) are expected to lose out from funding cuts, it said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made the following announcement on the Office’s opening of a new mission in Bangladesh.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
“The surge in the number of Afghans forced or compelled to return to Afghanistan this year is creating a multi-layered human rights crisis requiring the urgent attention of the international community,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday called for accountability and justice for the killings and other gross human rights violations and abuses in the southern city of Suweida.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNHCR
Syria: hundreds killed in Sweida, ‘widespread’ violations as civilians flee for their lives
Amid violent clashes in southern Syria’s Sweida governorate, a picture of grave human rights abuses and rising humanitarian needs is emerging by the hour, the UN said on Friday.
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
At the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva the UN Human Rights Spokesperson Liz Throssell made the following statement on the latest number of civilian casualties in Ukraine.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday called for investigations into hundreds of killings of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank by Israeli security forces and settlers, warning against ongoing forced mass displacement of the Palestinian population.
1
1
2
Edited News | OHCHR , UNRWA
Nearly 900 people have been killed in Gaza in recent weeks trying to fetch food, with most deaths linked to private aid hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and the UN Human Rights Office have today released a report detailing the evolution of violent gang incidents beyond the capital Port-au-Prince since October 2024 up to June 2025, and the resulting loss of life and mass displacement.