By Ope Adetayo
ABUJA (Reuters) – At least 49 people have been killed and thousands displaced in Nigeria after heavy rains caused flooding in the northeast of the country, the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA), said on Monday.
Three states in the northeast, Jigawa, Adamawa and Taraba, have been hit hard by floods, with 41,344 people displaced, said NEMA spokesperson Manzo Ezekiel.
In 2022, Nigeria experienced its worst flood in more than a decade which killed more than 600 people, displaced around 1.4 million and destroyed 440,000 hectares of farmland.
“We are just entering into the peak of the season, particularly in the northern part of the country and the situation is very dire,” Ezekiel told Reuters.
The floods have also destroyed farmlands affecting around 693 hectares of agricultural land. Nigeria is battling double-digit inflation which has been stoked by high food prices.
Heavy rains have added to problems in the farming sector where farmers are deserting their farms in the northeast due to repeated attacks by militants.
The government in this year’s flood outlook said 31 of the country’s 36 states were at risk of experiencing “high flood”.
“We also have information about the high tide in the upper countries of the River Niger before Nigeria. All of these are flowing towards Nigeria. We are beginning to see a manifestation of our predictions,” Ezekiel said.
(Reporting by Ope Adetayo; Editing by Chijioke Ohuocha and Mark Potter)
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