Hundreds killed in Nigeria floods, more than 1.4 million displaced
Authorities warned that many more people would be impacted
A woman prays in her makeshift home at the site of an oil spill near the Niger Delta in Nokan, in Bayelsa, Cross River state, Nigeria, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde
By Aline Subalabun
LAGOS (Reuters) – Floods in Nigeria, one of the world’s most oil-rich nations, killed at least 867 people and displaced more than 1.4 million others as the authorities warned that more weather-related disasters could strike as the country coped with record-breaking rains.
Nigerians have been battling widespread flooding and landslides across the country over the past six weeks, which have killed more than 1,000 people. Authorities have issued warnings of more weather-related disasters that could affect the country.
“I have never seen anything like what I saw, at this scale and everywhere,” Niger’s vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, told a news conference after inspecting flooded areas on Monday in the northern city of Kaduna.
“We want to appeal to the international community to come with everything they have,” Osinbajo added, describing the flooding disaster as “a national and regional disaster”.
“There are communities that are completely wiped out. We have many cases of people who were killed by the monsoon rains and had to be brought back to the city,” he added.
The United Nations said in a statement on Thursday that the flooding disaster was among the country’s two most serious since it embarked on an ambitious five-year development programme.
The flooding killed 11 people in two separate instances in Kaduna, a city on the country’s northern shores.
At least 150 people were killed in other flooding incidents including the flooding of rivers and slums in three other cities, including the capital Abuja, an official from the National Emergency Management Agency said.
Most of the deaths in each city were in the north of the country, the agency said.
A senior government minister told Reuters on Friday that more than 1,400 people were missing, including in the state of Kano where at least 80 people were killed by floods.
“The situation is bad and will get worse unless we work very hard
