MAIDUGURI: Severe flooding in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri has claimed at least 30 lives and forced 400,000 people from their homes, the emergency services said Wednesday.
"The death toll is 30,"
National Emergency Management Agency
(NEMA) spokesman Ezekiel Manzo told AFP a day after water from an overflowing dam swept away thousands of homes in the capital city of Borno state.
"The situation in Maiduguri is quite frightening," said Manzo's NEMA colleague
Zubaida Umar
.
"The flood has taken over around 40 percent of the entire city. People have been forced out of their homes and are scattered everywhere.
"From our statistics, we have 414,000 displaced people," said Umar, adding authorities feared the total of those displaced could hit one million.
Umar added the city's main hospital had also been affected by flooding which the UN refugee agency in Nigeria said on X Tuesday was the city's worst flooding in 30 years.
According to NEMA, more than 23,000 households, and upwards of 150,000 people, have been hit by the rapid rise of waters following the weekend rupture of the Alau dam on the
Ngadda River
, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Maiduguri.
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