Ekeomah Atuonwu
Following the recent disastrous flooding in Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Cameroon, the UN refugee agency warned that more than 3.4 million displaced people and their hosts urgently need assistance.
Olga Sarrado, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), stated during a news conference in Geneva that over 1.3 million people have been displaced as a result of the worst floods to hit Nigeria in ten years, which have taken hundreds of lives.
She said that more than a million people were affected by floods in Chad, prompting the government to declare an emergency. Over 90,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in the nation’s capital N’Djamena as a result of the Chari and Logone rivers in the country’s south overflowing their banks due to heavy rains. This flooding submerged fields, killed livestock, and forced people to leave their homes.
The flooding in the districts of Kousseri, Zina, Makari, Blangoua, and Logone Birni in Cameroon affected more than 63,000 people.
According to Sarrado, above-average rains and flooding in the Central Sahel countries of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso have killed hundreds, forced others to flee their homes, and devastated more than a million hectares of agriculture.
“Worsening climate shocks in the Sahel in particular have fueled drought and flooding, lowered crop yields and contributed to a general deterioration in public services for one of the world’s worst displacement crises,” she said.
“Beyond the Sahel, we are witnessing the worst drought in 40 years and the threat of famine in the Horn of Africa, a devastating cyclone season in Mozambique and historic floods for a fourth consecutive year in South Sudan and Sudan. Extreme weather across the African continent in 2022 has killed hundreds and forced millions to flee their homes,” she added.
