By Olukayode Michael, Maiduguri
Borno State Government said 20,000 shelters inhabited by internally displaced persons have been destroyed by flood.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, the chairperson of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, Hajiya Yabawa Kolo lamented that flooding has affected 20,000 internally displaced persons households/shelters in ten local government areas of the state.
She said the local governments affected are Maiduguri, Jere, Dikwa, Monguno, Konduga, Ngala, Kala-Balge, Mafa, Gwoza and Bama.
Kolo, said the flooding has compelled her agency to relocate affected IDPs to new locations as the state government continues to battle the flood.
The BOSEMA chairperson, who lamented that goods and properties worth several millions of Naira has been lost to the incident, said her agency has taken over 1,000 sandbags to both formal and informal camps affected by flood to fight back flooding.
She said some collapsing fences have also been rebuilt as the Borno State government has asked all its ministries and agencies with relevant roles to move in.
Yabawa applied to all relevant international agencies, the federal government to come to the aid of the state as the lost is massive.
She said: “The lost is in several millions of Naira and we need help from the relevant United Nations agencies, Norwegian RefugeesCommission and International Organisation for Migration and National Emergency ManagementAgency to tackle this latest challenge.”
She noted that at the moment her agency has moved with needed health interventions to ensure that there is no outbreak of water-borne diseases as a result of the flooding in the camps which has destroyed many latrines.