ABUJA, Aug. 23,
(Xinhua/GNA) – Severe floods caused by torrential rains have destroyed
makeshift tents of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in parts of Nigeria’s
northeast region, leaving vulnerable families homeless, according to an
international humanitarian agency on Friday.
As a result, large
numbers of families who fled from conflict months ago are left homeless while
others are forced to share overcrowded tents with neighbors or relatives, the
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which helps refugees and displaced persons in
Nigeria, said in a statement made available to Xinhua in Abuja.
“Displaced
people are suffering due to relentless rains and wind battering their homes the
last few days,” said the statement.
Heavy rainfalls in
the past two weeks have wreaked havoc in parts of Nigeria, with the northeast
region recording a huge loss of farmlands and houses to the natural disaster.
The NRC said over
6,800 people living in displacement camps in the city of Maiduguri, the capital
of the northeastern state of Borno, have been impacted by floods in recent
weeks.
In Dikwa, also a
town in Borno, 500 people have been rendered homeless due to flooding and have
set up homes in disused registration centers, it said.
On Aug. 7, the
Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, which is responsible for issuing flood
alerts, issued an alert over possible flooding due to the high intensity of
rainfall across the country.
This year, Nigeria’s
36 states and the federal capital territory, Abuja, would witness different
levels of flooding, the hydrological body predicted.
GNA
