Nigeria: Floods – Maiduguri (MMC) and Jere Floods Flash Update 3 (18 September 2024)

HIGHLIGHTS

• Close to 400,000 people have been registered in 30 relocation sites, as of 18 September, according to the Borno State Government’s Emergency Operations Centre.

• The flooding is happening at the height of the lean season food and nutrition crisis.

• Physical access remains a challenge with Lagos St. Bridge only passable on foot. Fori Bridge has collapsed, while the Customs Bridge is partially flooded.

• Muna camp, which is housing approximately 57,000 people, of whom 6,000 are new arrivals, remains hard-to-reach and is only accessible by big trucks.

• Over half of the relocation sites are schools repurposed to serve as temporary sites for flood affected IDPs.

• In support of Government efforts, the UN and partners have ramped up food assistance, multi-purpose cash assistance, water, sanitation, health care and other interventions to prevent outbreaks of acute watery diarrhea and cholera.

• Link to Rapid Needs Assessment Report

SITUATION OVERVIEW

Close to 400,000 temporarily displaced people have been registered in 30 relocation sites following relocations from flood affected areas in the Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC), Jere and Konduga local government areas (LGAs), as of 18 September. This is according to the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) of the Borno State Government (BSG). This follows the flash flooding that occurred on the night of 9 September, when the Alau Dam collapsed causing widespread flooding across MMC and Jere.

The flooding is happening at the height of a food and nutrition crisis – the lean season. Before the flood crisis, MMC and Jere were experiencing the worst nutrition crisis in nearly 15 years. Almost a quarter of children under five are acutely malnourished based on the results of the August 2024 nutrition SMART survey.

At least 44,000 children under five, including 7,700 with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and 18,100 with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM), as well as 24,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls (PBWG) need urgent lifesaving nutrition assistance over the next two months. Over the June to September lean season, the lives of 230,000 children in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY) states are threatened by SAM.

Following the floods, nearly 40 per cent of the stabilization centers (SCs) for the treatment of SAM, and outpatient therapeutic programmes (4 of the 10 SCs and 25 of the 64 OTPs) and 70 per cent (13) of targeted supplementary feeding programme sites (TSFP) within MMC/Jere were forced to suspend services due to the floods.

The flash floods affected at least 40 per cent of the SC beds – meaning that 418 of 1,058 SC beds are not available. Partners such as the International Rescue Committee (IRC) closed the flooded Mashamari SC and moved the admitted children to Umaru Shehu. The SCs that are significantly affected by the flooding include Mashamari, State Specialist Hospital, Maryam Abacha and University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.

Three warehouses were also affected by the floods with nutrition commodities, including ready-to-use therapeutic food, therapeutic milk products for treating severe malnutrition (F-75, F-100) and medical supplies either destroyed or looted.

So far, at least 21 of the temporary relocation sites have mobile SAM treatment services, while the remaining sites will have the services operational by this week. Four camps have started preventive services for malnutrition (supplemental nutrition assistance). The Borno State Government (BSG) are providing these services, through the Borno State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (BoSPHCDB), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and national and international non-governmental organizations (N/INGOs).

With the number of people registered in relocation sites increasing, many sites are overcrowded with open defecation taking place. While there has been no confirmed case of cholera this year in Borno State, there are significant concerns about an outbreak given the cramped spaces and deteriorating sanitary conditions. Urgent support is required to scale up the ongoing water and sanitation hygiene (WASH) interventions to ensure adequate coverage of facilities. There is also a need for increased surveillance for diseases and preparedness for potential outbreaks. Cases of malaria and other vector borne disease are also likely to increase. Borno is experiencing a measles outbreak, with 25 of its 27 LGAs reporting cases since the beginning of the year. More than 5,000 suspected cases have been reported.

The major challenges for the health sector include limited resources (equipment, drugs supplies, funding) to respond to the crisis. Non-adherence to public health and social measures in the relocation sites are hindering efforts to monitor epidemic-prone diseases and malnutrition, as well as to provide standard health responses and quality essential health services in the affected areas.

Priority needs among affected people are food assistance, wet feeding (most people affected have lost stoves and cooking utensils), potable water, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities and safe shelters. There is also an urgent need for protection activities to reduce the risk of gender-based violence (GBV), and to protect separated and unaccompanied children, including tracing their families.

Drawing on existing resources, and in support of Government efforts, the UN and partners continue to ramp up wet feeding/ food assistance, multi-purpose cash assistance, water, sanitation, health care and other interventions to prevent outbreaks of acute watery diarrhea and cholera. But additional resources are urgently needed. On14 September, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mohamed Malick Fall announced the allocation of US $6 million from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF) towards the flood response in the BAY states. This followed a high-level interagency visit to Maiduguri on the same day comprising UN heads of agencies, country directors of international and local NGOs, as well as donors, led by Mr. Fall.

Borno remains the hardest hit State across Nigeria in terms of the number of people affected by floods. Adamawa, and other states contiguous to the Benue River system (Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Koji, Edo, Delta, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross-Rivers and Rivers) are facing a potential risk of flooding with the gradual release of water from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon starting on 17 September. Some 50,000 people are impacted by recent flooding in Adamawa.

Across Nigeria, floods have damaged tens of thousands of hectares of farmland ahead of the harvest season. This is amid record spikes in food and fuel inflation, following the devaluation of the naira and the removal of the fuel subsidy. The damage to crops risks worsening food insecurity in the ongoing lean season, and in the coming months. This may lead to a further deterioration in the already alarming food insecurity across the country. More than 32 million people in Nigeria are facing severe food insecurity, according to the March 2024 Cadre Harmonisé food security and nutrition assessment.

In the BAY states, where 4.8 million people were facing food insecurity in the lean season before the floods, 70,500 hectares of cropland are affected, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). With some marginal (maximum 25 per cent) food security recovery at the end of the lean season in October, an estimated 3.6 million people are likely to remain food insecure prior to the completion of seasonal harvesting. With the flood impact, the total number of acutely food insecure people needing urgent assistance (from mid-September to the end of October 2024) across the BAY states is 5 million people.

Floods across West and Central Africa are affecting over four million people in 14 countries amid a regional hunger crisis already affecting 55 million people – four times more people than five years ago.