WEB DESK
More than 600 people have died in Nigeria so far in the worst flooding that the country has seen in a decade. Nigerian Humanitarian Affairs Minister Sadiya Umar Farouq said that around 82 thousand houses and over 100 thousand hectares of farmland had been submerged and destroyed due to the worst flooding. Nigeria’s ministry for Humanitarian Affairs last week reported that around 1.4 million people had been displaced from their homes.
President Muhammadu Buhari last week ordered to release of 12 thousand metric tonnes of food items from the strategic reserves for communities affected by catastrophic flooding.
According to Nigeria’s Meteorological Agency, the flooding is expected to continue until the end of November. Nigeria is used to seasonal flooding, but this year has been significantly worse than usual. The devastation of farmland comes at a time Nigeria faces heightened food insecurity because of the high prices of food items.