Oct. 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that the floods that have been plaguing central and western Africa since this summer have forced more than 3.5 million people to flee their homes, especially in Nigeria.
The torrential rains in this country, the worst recorded in the last decade, have left 1.3 million displaced and some 2.8 million affected, especially in the northeastern regions of the country such as the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
The situation has also become critical in Chad and Cameroon, where more than a million people have been affected, particularly in the south of the country, where the overflow of the Chari and Logone rivers have submerged entire populations in both countries.
To this must be added the impact in the Central Sahel region, specifically in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, where more than a million hectares of crops have been destroyed and more than half a million people (about 375,000 in Burkina alone) have been forced to leave their homes.
The UNHCR spokeswoman, Olga Sarrado, explained this Friday that this exodus is one more demonstration that “the link between forced displacement and the climate crisis is becoming clearer and increasing” within a situation of “general deterioration ” which only “exacerbates the underlying challenges faced by the affected countries”.
“We are witnessing the worst drought in the last 40 years in the Horn of Africa, which is now under the threat of famine” while humanitarian operations “are chronically and dangerously underfunded”, according to the spokeswoman, who recalled that, at most, they have received half of the funds requested for aid to Niger.
In countries such as Chad or Burkina, the percentage of financing has barely exceeded 40 percent. The aid received by Nigeria, despite the seriousness of the situation, does not even reach this percentage (39 percent), according to Sarrado’s estimates.
