Nigeria's disasters agency says 100 people killed in floods across 10 states

Partially submerged houses are pictured in flood waters in Lokoja city, Kogi State, Nigeria. Picture: Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters

Partially submerged houses are pictured in flood waters in Lokoja city, Kogi State, Nigeria. Picture: Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters

Published Sep 17, 2018

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Abuja - Floods across 10 states of Nigeria have killed 100 people, 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.

National disaster means the federal government has taken over search, rescue and rehabilitation of victims in the worst hit states, which are in central and southern parts of the country.

On Saturday local authorities in Nigeria's southern state of Edo said 30 000 people had been displaced by the floods in more than 35 communities in the eastern and central parts of the state. 

The disaster had gone beyond the purview of local government council areas, Aremiyau Momoh, chairman of Etsako East, told reporters in Benin city, the state capital. '

On his part, John Akhigbe, chairman of Etsako Central, called for urgent intervention from both the state and the federal governments. 

The duo said camps for the displaced had been placed in strategic locations across the council areas. Similarly, about 700 houses including large farmlands have been affected by flash floods following heavy rains in parts of oil rich Rivers state. 

Martins Ejike, a co-ordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told reporters in Port Harcourt, the state capital, that the floods began since August. '

Ejike advised people living in affected areas 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. 

The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency had listed 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. 

In 2012, NEMA reported that floods killed 363 people and displaced over 2.1 million others in 30 states. 

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