The flooding that hit Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, in the wee hours of yesterday has submerged hundreds of houses and destroyed lots of properties.The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed that over 200,000 people were displaced.
An unspecified number of people, including children are still missing.Many properties including, houses, farmlands and business places have also been destroyed.
The residents, most of who are from Jere Local Government Area, have been forced to vacate their homes.The flooding followed the collapse of the Alau Dam, which overflowed its banks from about 10 kilometres away into the state capital.
Residential and business areas have been submerged, including the popular Monday Market and thousands of homes and properties, such as the Palace of the Shehu of Borno, Shehuri, Gwange, Adamkolo, Gamboru, Fori, Bulabulin, Post Office areas, Moromoro, and Customs Bridge, among others, have also been affected.
Some of those who spoke to pressmen said the last time such a devastation enveloped Maiduguri and environs was about 30 years ago. A resident, Fatima Ali, said: “I managed to escape, but my parents and six siblings remain trapped. I want to appeal to the government to do everything humanly possible to rescue them.” A shop owner, Ibrahim Musa, said: “We just fled the zoo area for fear of being attacked by the escaping wildlife. All the shops around the popular Monday Market and post office have been submerged by the flood.”
Many traders at the Monday Market watched helplessly as their wares were washed away by the flood.
A sugar and flour trader, Muhammad Bulama said: “Our goods worth billions of naira have been submerged. Just pray for us.”
Former BBC correspondent, Ibrahim Jirgi, who covered the 1994 flood incident in Maiduguri for the BBC and the Daily Times, said climate change could be responsible for the latest incident. “During the 1994 incident, the whole of Maiduguri was taken over by water. People climbed trees to survive and many residents thought that the world had come to an end,” he said.
The Gwange Cemetery in Maiduguri was also washed away, leaving corpses floating in the streets. A resident said: “The cemetery is already flat and the water pressure exhumed corpses from several graves. Women and children are traumatised by the horrific sights.”
Many patients at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) were also stranded as the facility was submerged. Ali Galadima, whose wife was on admission at the UMTH, said patients were evacuated upstairs as the ground floor was flooded. “She was complaining of hunger but the water level couldn’t allow me to access the hospital. In fact, many patients’ relatives are stranded looking for ways to access them,” he said.
Sources in Gwange area said many children might have drowned.“You can see some mothers crying, looking for their little children,” he said.A woman, who gave her name as Ya’ana, said: “I was awakened by my neighbours around 3:30am. I became terrified when I saw water gushing into our house. I tried to save my children from drowning, but I still could not see two of my children.”
Acting Zonal Coordinator, NEMA, Sirajo Garba, said they have placed Maiduguri on high alert following the magnitude of devastation of the flood in the last 24 hours. He said the agency, alongside others, had worked diligently to rescue victims trapped in flood-affected areas but could not give the number of people killed by the flood.
The Chairman of the Association of Resident Doctors, Abubakar Ngubdo, warned that the state was at the high risk of water-borne diseases as the flood had contaminated the surface water in the affected areas. “There would be pollution because corpses floated, sewages, septic tanks and refuse dumps are also there. So there would be contamination of water.
“The government should swing into action to prevent epidemic because floods can lead to water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid fever,” he said. “There is need to provide good camping of the displaced, clean and portable drinking water, toilets and healthcare for them.“And for those who show early signs of the diseases, they should quickly be attended to medically,” he added.
