Weeks of flooding across Nigeria have killed 185 people and displaced 208,000 others in 28 of the country’s 36 states, the National Emergency Management Agency reported Friday. The floods have also washed away homes and farmlands, exacerbating concerns about food security in Africa’s most populous nation.
The disaster management agency said the floods have destroyed 107,000 hectares of farmland, particularly in northern states which are crucial to Nigeria’s agricultural production. This damage comes at a time when many farmers in the region are already struggling due to economic hardships and violent attacks that have forced them to flee their lands.
Nigeria’s meteorological agency attributes the current flooding more to human activities than to heavier rainfall, which was the primary cause of the country’s worst floods in a decade in 2022. Ibrahim Wasiu Adeniyi, head of the central forecasting unit, cited indiscriminate refuse dumping and unauthorized construction along waterways as contributing factors.
Associated Press reports that, the disaster response agency has warned that the situation could worsen in the coming weeks as flood waters flow towards central and southern states. “People (in flood-prone areas) need to evacuate now … because we don’t have time any longer,” agency spokesperson Manzo Ezekiel urged.
In Jigawa, the worst-affected state with 37 deaths, authorities are converting public buildings and schools into shelters for the displaced. Nura Abdullahi, head of emergency services in the state, described the impact as “devastating.”
The floods’ destruction of farmland is particularly concerning given Nigeria’s existing food security challenges. The United Nations food agency reports that Nigeria has the highest number of people facing acute hunger globally, with 32 million affected.
Abdullahi Gummi, a resident of Zamfara state’s Gummi council area, told reporters that the floods destroyed his family’s farmlands, their primary source of income. “We spent around 300,000 naira ($188) on planting, but everything is gone,” Gummi said.
As Nigeria grapples with this crisis, authorities are scrambling to evacuate hundreds of thousands to makeshift shelters and mitigate the impact on food production and distribution across the country.
