More than 600 killed in Nigeria’s worst flooding in a decade
Nigeria’s worst flooding in more than 10 years has killed at least 600 people, damaged thousands more properties and prompted civil defences to launch a major relief operation that could require as many as six months.
The death toll is expected to rise.
The flooding began on 15 September when heavy rains triggered flash floods and landslides in parts of south-western Nigeria.
In the worst affected states the floods triggered landslides, rivers and flash floods that destroyed villages and homes.
The worst affected areas were among the highest ranked in Nigeria according to the 2010 State of Human Development Report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and had a high rate of poverty and illiteracy and relatively low rates of economic growth.
Nigeria’s government has said an investigation is under way into what caused the floods, and the president declared a national disaster on Friday.
The UN has set up a crisis response unit to help people affected by the flooding.
Nigerian officials say it is too soon to estimate the damage caused, but many residents have told the BBC that about 200,000 people have been affected by the floods, with nearly 100,000 people living in areas at risk of future or ongoing flooding.
The BBC’s Caroline Orr on the ground in Nsukka says houses and villages have been swept away, some with more than one home in some places, but many people are still living in temporary shelters.
In the past, the highest level of rainfall in a year in Nigeria has been recorded on 23 August 2007, with 1035 millimetres of rain falling in the space of just three hours, the national meteorological agency said.
In that year the government declared a state of calamity in 14 states.
A spokesman for the minister of disaster management said in a statement that water levels had risen significantly and the floods affected 4.9 million people.
The spokesman, Emmanuel Okoye, did not give the number of fatalities related to the floods.
As of Friday, only seven people were receiving help from the Nigerian Red Cross Society, according to the group’s spokesperson, Joseph Makunge. The Red Cross has appealed for donations to help the victims recover from the floods.
However, the U.