With 1. 3 million other people displaced across the country, Anambra state in the southeast of the country is estimated to be one of the hardest affected, with 651,000 displaced. Authorities are seeking to rescue thousands of others who have been evacuated.
Many in it have been displaced to IDP camps, but their care has been left in the hands of battered local officials.
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Anambra state governor Chukwuma Soludo spoke on local television on Tuesday and said 8 local governments were absolutely overwhelmed.
“Beyond the early adaptation strategy and our own long-term timeline as a government on the environment, there is a national verbal exchange that wants to take place,” he said.
“We can no longer treat perennial flooding as an emergency,” he added, calling on the national government to better prepare for the next flood.
Flooding food security
Nigeria reports annual floods, but those floods are the worst in a decade. Officials say this is due to the release of excess water from the Lagdo dam in neighboring Cameroon, as well as increased rainfall.
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Food security is at least 340,000 hectares of land that have been affected, adding to losses in northwestern and central Nigeria, where fighting has disrupted the planting season.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered “all involved to work to restore normalcy,” according to a statement issued by the presidency.
Sadiya Umar Farouq, Nigeria’s minister of humanitarian affairs, said Buhari last week approved the distribution of 12,000 grain metrics to soil victims.
He warned that five states could be hit by more flooding in November.
“We call on the respective state governments, local government councils and communities to prepare for additional flooding by evacuating other people living in the floodplains to higher ground,” Farouq said.