Africa

Floods in West and Central Africa displace millions of people

A woman affected by flooding in Jakusko, Nigeria.

The UN Refugee Agency reported this Friday that Nigeria is facing the worst floods in the last decade with hundreds of lives lost, more than 1.3 million displaced and more than 2.8 million affected by the impact of flooding on farmland and of the infrastructures.

Flooding in northeast Nigeria has washed away IDP centers and villages of host communities in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, forcing people to move to higher ground.

“This situation is increasing the risks of diseases, such as cholera, malnutrition, but also protection risks since this area is affected not only by floods but also by conflict and the presence of armed groups that increase the risks suffered by these populations”, affirmed the spokeswoman for the Agency, Olga Sarrado.

The organization and its partners are providing shelter and essential aid to thousands of families, including 14,900 tarps and 550 kits of basic household items. In Taraba state, heavy rains have left affected communities in the town of Baissa without humanitarian aid.

For its part, the Government of Chad declared a state of emergency after the floods affected more than a million people. Heavy rains in the south of the country caused the Chari and Logone rivers to overflow, submerging fields, killing livestock and forcing more than 90,000 people to flee their homes and seek refuge in N’Djamena.

In Cameroon, more than 63,000 people were affected by the flooding of the two rivers in the districts of Kousseri, Zina, Makari, Blangoua and Logone Birni.

In the Central Sahel countries – Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso – above-average rains and floods have killed hundreds of people, displaced thousands and decimated more than a million hectares of crops.

Some 379,500 IDPs live in the flood-affected areas of Burkina Faso, in the Sahel, North-Central and North regions. More than 32,000 people have been affected by the floods in the Diffa region of Niger, and more than 13,000 have been displaced. This year, more than 41,000 people have been affected by floods across Mali, up from 10,511 in 2021.

© WFP/Arete/Ozavogu Abdul

The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in four decades

Regarding the extreme temperatures that Africa is experiencing this year, Sarrado indicated that the forced displacement of millions of people due to this phenomenon “is a unique and worrying situation not only in the Sahel but also in the Horn of Africa. where we are seeing a drought that has not been seen in the last 40 years and with a risk of faminecyclones in Mozambique and floods in South Sudan and Sudan”.

Temperatures in the Sahel are rising 1.5 times faster than the global average. This is exacerbating the underlying challenges states face in managing rapid population growth, reversal of development gains, and encroachment by armed non-state actors.

The climate crisis is destroying livelihoods, disrupting food security, exacerbating conflicts over scarce resources and fueling displacement. Worsening climatic shocks in the Sahel, in particular, are causing droughts and floods, reducing crop yields and contributing to the general deterioration of public services in one of the world’s worst displacement crises.

At the same time, the agency’s humanitarian operations in West and Central Africa are dangerously underfunded. In Chad, only 43% of the funds required by the Agency for 2022 have been received. The operations in Burkina Faso are only 42% funded, those in Nigeria 39% and those in Niger 53%.

The Agency called on the donor community to urgently support its work in West and Central Africa.

Source link

Tags