100 people Have been killed in floods across 10 states in Nigeria, a spokesman for the country’s emergency and disasters agency said on Monday.
“A national disaster has been declared in four states – Kogi, Niger, Anambra and Delta,” said Sani Datti, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), after heavy rain over the past days.
The government has since taken over search, rescue and rehabilitation of victims in the worst hit states in the central and southern parts of the country.
According to local authorities in Nigeria’s southern state of Edo, by Saturday 30 000 people had been displaced by the floods in more than 35 communities in the eastern and central parts of the state.
Martins Ejike, a co-ordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told reporters in Port Harcourt, the state capital, that the floods have been ongoing since August. ‘
People living in affected areas have been advised to relocate to higher ground for temporary shelters in case of the bigger floods. In neighbouring Anambra state, authority also advised people living in floods-prone areas to immediately relocate to approved Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) centres across the state.
The state said it had established 28 camps across the state for possible flood victims. 12 states as areas likely to be affected by floods. The agency said on Wednesday that the water level in central Kogi, one of the states, had neared the 2012 level at 10.66m and called for vigilance by residents.
