Maiduguri — The Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mohammed Fall, announced on Tuesday that the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund is allocating $6 million to support flood victims in Borno State. The announcement comes in response to the collapse of the Alau Dam on September 10, which has forced hundreds of thousands of residents to flee their homes.
The dam’s collapse has caused extensive flooding, impacting the communities around Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric reported that a joint mission, including UN agencies, NGOs, and the Nigeria Red Cross Society, visited Maiduguri over the weekend to assess the situation and provide immediate relief.
Dujarric outlined the aid efforts, which include providing hot meals, air drops of food to inaccessible areas, trucking in water, and offering sanitation services. The mission is also distributing water purification tablets and hygiene kits to prevent disease outbreaks, and supplying emergency health and shelter services.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has been actively involved in the response. Emmanuel Bigenimana, head of the WFP office in Maiduguri, conducted a rapid assessment of the damage from a UN Humanitarian Air Service helicopter. He described the situation as “heartbreaking,” with extensive flooding submerging homes, infrastructure, and public facilities. Bigenimana reported that between 200,000 and 300,000 people are displaced and currently overcrowded in several IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps and on the streets.
WFP has established soup kitchens in three IDP camps—Teachers’ Village, Asheikh, and Yerwa—to provide hot meals to the most affected individuals, including 50,000 children, women, and men. Despite these efforts, Bigenimana stressed the urgent need for additional assistance. “This is really an additional burden to already existing crises,” he said, highlighting the ongoing conflict in the region and the severe impact of food inflation.
The flooding has affected approximately 800,000 people across 29 states in Nigeria, with over 550,000 hectares of cropland inundated. As of March, 32 million people in the country were facing acute hunger. The UN’s food agency has estimated a need for $147.9 million to support food-insecure populations in Nigeria’s northeast over the next six months.
Bigenimana emphasized that recovery for the flood-affected populations in Maiduguri will be a long-term process, requiring substantial resources and concerted efforts to address immediate needs and plan for future recovery.