More than 80 households – mostly thatched huts and tents – have had to be evacuated because of severe flooding at Bakassi, one of the oldest internally displaced persons’ camps in Maiduguri, on Wednesday, August 11.
Those affected were mainly from the Guzamala, Gwoza and Monguno local government areas.
Abdullahi Suleiman, the media officer of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), said a meeting had been held with organisations responsible for providing shelter for internally displaced persons and the Borno State government had granted them permission to visit the camp to help those affected by flood.
A resident at the camp, Hauwa Bulama, who is from the Gwoza Local Government Area, told RNI reporter Nana Mustapha that at least 80 households were affected following a heavy downpour on Wednesday evening.
Pointing to stagnant pools of water around Bakassi camp, she said: “How can we live like this? It is no wonder that people get sick. The drainage system does not work and the dirty water is just left to dry up or more pools are formed when the rain comes again. It is a vicious circle.”
She said the flooding on Wednesday had cause massive damage to their huts and tents, totally damaging some of them, and they could no longer sleep there.
“I am begging the Borno state government and non-governmental organisations to come to help us,” she said.
Malam Garba, a resident at the Bakassi camp, said his tent had been completely damaged by the flood and he did not have money to repair it.
“Not many internally displaced persons sleep comfortably during the rainy season. My wife and I don’t sleep in the night mostly because we fear that the flood will affect our children while they are asleep. Life in the camp is hard. We suffer all the time. No food. No quality education for our children. And most of us are jobless. We pray that this insurgency ends so that we can return to our ancestral homes and start life again. That will be better for us,” he said.
Suleiman said that the state government had already sent workers to the camp to construct waterways. “They are also advising residents in the camp on how to prevent the improper disposal of waste at the camp to avoid blocking the drainage systems.”
The United Nations International Organisation For Migration (IOM) said heavy rainfalls, accompanied by strong winds, had caused serious damage to internally displaced persons’ shelters and camp infrastructures in Borno State.
In a report published in June, Deltares, an independent institute for applied research in the field of water, said it had established a Water, Humanitarian Aid and Migration (WHAM) programme to provide the technical support and knowledge needed to support water security in and around refugee and internally displaced persons’ camps.
It said frequent flooding in Borno State posed a major source of water insecurity in the region.
The report said that to reduce the risk and mitigate the consequences of flooding in and around camps, and to promote sustainable Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services, IOM was investing in improving the drainage conditions at Bakassi camp.
