Nigeria floods affect one million people after dam collapse

Authorities in Borno State rush to provide shelter for residents displaced by the severe flooding.

The collapse of a dam in northeast Nigeria has caused severe flooding, destroying thousands of homes and worsening a dire humanitarian crisis.

The flooding in Borno State has affected a million people, the state governor said on Wednesday, straining resources as authorities scramble to rescue residents and place them in temporary shelters.

Heavy rains had caused a dam to overflow on Tuesday, decimating a state-owned zoo and washing crocodiles and snakes into flooded communities.

Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from Maiduguri in Nigeria, said a “stream of people” are currently making their way out of areas covered by the floodwaters.

He said civilians have been searching in the water with limited diving equipment to save as many people as possible.

“We’ve seen dead bodies arriving,” he said, adding that a successful rescue operation saw baby twins saved from the floodwaters and moved to safety.

Local officials said it was the worst flooding in the state in two decades, but authorities have yet to announce deaths.

People walk through floodwaters following a dam collapse in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Tuesday, September 10, 2024 [Joshua Olatunji/AP Photos]

Idris reported that Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima visited people displaced by the floods on Tuesday evening and promised to provide them with food, shelter and medicine. A day later, Idris said that very few supplies had reached those people.

Borno State governor Babagana Zulum visited Bakassi camp on Wednesday and told reporters that authorities were assessing the damage and a quarter of the state capital, Maiduguri, had been flooded.

“You can see how water completely flooded the area, sewerages were completely flooded, that means waterborne diseases would be transmitted,” Zulum told reporters while meeting affected residents.

The dam collapse is compounding a humanitarian crisis in Borno over the past decade due to a rebellion started by the Boko Haram armed group. The rebellion, which has spilled across borders around Lake Chad, has killed more than 35,000 people, displaced 2.6 million others in the country’s north-east region.

Bakassi camp used to house tens of thousands of people who were displaced by the Boko Haram rebellion. The camp had been closed last year.

The National Emergency Management Agency said that floods in Nigeria have killed 229 people since the start of the year.

In late August, flooding killed 49 people and displaced thousands in three states – Jigawa, Adamawa and Taraba – after heavy rains in the country’s northeast.

The worst flooding in recent times killed 600 people in 2022.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies