Borno State government has received billions of naira in donations and flood victims hope the funds will benefit all those affected – although many say nothing will ever be the same.

As mopping up operations continue in Maiduguri, Borno State’s capital, and surrounding areas, most residents have been left counting their losses – although some are counting their blessings.

When Auwalu Isa was swept away in swirling floodwaters, he thought his last day on Borno State soil had come.

“I never learnt to swim. The water was moving so fast. I was totally overwhelmed and overpowered. I kept being dragged down. I was terrified. I was sure I would die.

“When I bobbed to the surface, I shouted: ‘Help! Help! Help!’ But I didn’t think anyone was around. There was just water and more water. My body was tumbling around. I was being pounded.

“The next thing, seemingly from out of nowhere, swimmers and rescuers grabbed me. They pulled me to safety. And I survived. I’m very grateful to Almighty Allah and to the people who rescued me. May Allah bless them.”

Isa’s story is just one of thousands of survivors who were caught up in the floods in Borno State last week when the Alau Dam – 16km from Maiduguri – started to overflow in the early hours of Tuesday, September 10.

Thousands of houses in the metropolis and surrounding areas were submerged, along with infrastructure, including roads, bridges, schools, markets, businesses and hospitals. The zoo was submerged with 80% of its animals killed. At least 274 inmates escaped from a prison, the Nigerian Correctional Service said.

More than half of Maiduguri was under water. The devastating flood affected about two million people in the city and surrounding areas, displacing more than 400,000.

The death toll – 77 so far – has yet to be confirmed. Residents and rescuers believe it will be much higher. There are still many people missing.

Property and belongings worth billions of naira have been lost.

Survivors, many of whom have lost everything they owned, are staying in makeshift internally displaced persons’ camps – or living on the streets, hungry, tired, despondent. But many are grateful to still be alive.

As the floodwaters gradually began receding this week, desperate stories of survival – and death – are coming to light.

Business activities are picking up and traders are selling food and other necessities, although already-high prices have shot up even further, limiting what most people can buy. Food is scarce as much of the stocks were destroyed by water.

Mopping up operations are slow but steady and life is beginning to get back to normal – but it will never be the same again for many.

ORDEALS OF RESCUED FLOOD VICTIMS

Apart from destroying houses and infrastructure, the devastating flood trapped people on rooftops and in the upstairs storeys of buildings. Some people were found clinging to the branches of trees.

Rescuers and residents said they had seen corpses in the floodwaters. Some are believed to have drowned, others died of starvation.

Many were rescued by the military, navy divers, the state and national emergency management agencies, and volunteers.

They all spoke about the terror of being unable to escape raging floodwaters.

Auwalu Isa is from the Fariya community in the Jere Local Government Area of Borno State.

He said hunger drove him to go out in search of food.

“When I got caught up in the floodwater, I just gave up. The pressure of the water was so strong. I didn’t think any living thing could survive.

“I was terrified because I had never experienced anything like it before. Then the rescuers came and I realised I was safe. It was an incredible feeling.”

Shettima Modu, also from Fariya, told RNI the floodwater submerged houses in the community.

“I knew my only hope was to try to swim to safety. I’m an old man of 70. I can swim but I am not as strong as I used to be.

“I had already given up, thinking I would drown, when a group of swimmers who were hanging on to a wall jumped into the water and grabbed me. I was lucky. I survived.”

Modu said he had seen the flood that occurred in 1994.

“That was 30 years ago. I survived then and I survived this time. This time the flood was worse. I have never seen so much water.”

By Sunday, September 15, most rescue teams halted operations as the floodwater receded.

MANY HOMELESS PEOPLE STRANDED

The devasting flood affected about two million people. More than 400,000 people were displaced and are taking refuge in makeshift camps within Maiduguri and surrounding areas.

But not everyone was able to get into the camps. Thousands of homeless people are living on the streets.

Amina Mohammed told RNI her house was submerged and is still under water.

“I had no other choice but to go onto the streets. It’s hard because of the rain. And there are so many mosquitoes.

“I am staying on top of the Maiduguri Custom flyover along Muna Road in Maiduguri. My six children are with me and my two younger brothers. We have no food and water. There are thousands living on the streets.”

Falmata Abubakar said it was extremely hard living on the streets without shelter, food and clean water.

“There have been heavy downpours. We use our blankets and clothes to cover and protect our children from the rain and mosquitoes.

“When it rains, we spend the whole night standing. We don’t sleep. We are terrified the water will rise again and we will be swept away. We are begging the government and humanitarian agencies to give us shelters.”

Bukar Saula said: “We are facing a serious humanitarian crisis. We have no food, no shelter and no clean water. It keeps on raining and we have nowhere to go.”

BORNO STATE GOVERNMENT RECEIVES BILLIONS IN DONATIONS

In the wake of the catastrophic flooding, the Borno State government has received billions of naira in donations.

It is expected the money will be used to help those who lost everything they owned in the flood and to rebuild Maiduguri and surrounding areas so that life can get back to normal.

Apart from the thousands of houses destroyed, critical infrastructure needs to be reconstructed or rehabilitated. Some of the public infrastructure damaged in the flood includes the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, roads and bridges, the zoo and the state’s correctional facility.

Five states contributed a total of ₦600 million to relief efforts: Adamawa donated ₦50 million, Kano ₦100 million, Gombe ₦100 million, Bauchi ₦250 million and Taraba ₦100 million.

Wealthy businessman Alhaji Aliko Dangote donated a ₦2 billion. Individual contributors include the former Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, businessman and philanthropist Alhaji Aminu Dantata and author and social media influencer Reno Omokri.

The United Nations donated US$6 million – roughly equivalent of ₦10 billion.

Members of the National Assembly donated ₦600 million.

Flood victims told RNI that they hoped the money would be used “wisely and fairly”.

Modu Masa from Maiduguri said the money should be used to feed displaced people and reconstruct houses.

“I hope the state government will use the funds justly and fairly. The government must be accountable for every penny it received.”

Aisha Goni Bukar said the money should be used to rebuild “all the destroyed houses”.

“Every person who lost everything they owned should benefit. The government needs to ensure transparency. Transactions must be open.

“I am appealing to the government not to play politics with the money received from donors. All transactions must be accountable and just – no misappropriation and corruption.”

BUSINESS GETS BACK TO BUSINESS

Business activities have started picking up as merchants resume selling meat, fish and vegetables – as well as rice, flour, grains and other staples.

Traders are back at their roadside stalls. The popular Monday Market in Maiduguri – which was flooded – has reopened even though many of the traders lost much of their stocks and they are counting their losses.

Stories are circulating that some traders are selling flood-affected food. However the Borno State government issued a stern warning about food safety.

In a press statement issued by the Borno State Ministry of Information and Internal Security, it said: “Any food that was mixed with flood water constitutes a serious health risk.”

It warned citizens to exercise extreme caution, advising them to “desist from buying, selling, processing or consuming contaminated grains or other food items that were salvaged from flooded stores”.

It said the public should “desist from butchering, distributing, processing, selling, buying or consuming dead animals. Dead animals are poisonous.”

Yakubu Umar, a merchant at Monday Market, told RNI that the floodwater had destroyed “a lot of my stock”.

“I sell food such as cooking oil, palm oil, seasonings and rice. Floodwater destroyed almost everything in my shop. Now I am selling products that were not affected by the flood. We thank God. Many customers have returned to the market.”

Ibrahim Mohammed, a customer, told RNI that he had gone to the market to buy soup ingredients.

“I was able to get what I wanted, although some things are scarce. But the prices have skyrocketed. They were high before the flood but now they are exorbitant.

“I think the traders are taking advantage of the disastrous situation. The cost of food has gone through the roof. I just hope that as things go back to normal, the prices will come down in the coming days.”

UNITED NATIONS PLEDGES TO SUPPORT FLOOD VICTIMS

On Monday, Mohamed Malick Fall, the United Nations resident coordinator in Nigeria, announced that US$6 million from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund would be made available to support flood victims in Borno State.

Stephane Dujarric, a UN spokesperson, told journalists at a news conference in New York on Monday that a joint mission – made up of UN agencies alongside the Nigeria Red Cross Society – visited Maiduguri at the weekend.

Dujarric said they met people who had been affected by the flood – many of whom had already been displaced multiple times by conflict and insecurity in the area.

“We and our partners are providing them with hot meals; we are facilitating air drops of food in hard-to-reach areas cut off by flood waters and we are also trucking in water.

“We are also providing water and sanitation hygiene services and water purification tablets to stem disease outbreaks.

“This is in addition to supplying hygiene and dignity kits to women and girls, as well as emergency health and shelter services.”

Dujarric said staff of the UN’s Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) were collaborating closely with donors to secure additional funding.

“Across Nigeria, flooding has damaged hectares of farmland and that was just before harvest time – and at a time when 32 million people in the country are facing severe food insecurity.”

Earlier, Emmanuel Bigenimana, the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) office in Maiduguri, said that he managed to fly over the city in a UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) helicopter dispatched by WFP to conduct a rapid assessment of damage and needs.

“What I have seen is really heartbreaking,” he said, adding that there were submerged homes, infrastructure, roads, schools and hospitals.

“Many, many people – I’m talking about more than 200,000 to 300,000 displaced people – are overcrowded in several IDP [internally displaced persons’] camps and also on the streets.”

Speaking from the centre of one of the displaced persons’ camps, Bigenimana said the WFP had managed to open soup kitchens to provide hot meals to the affected people and was scaling up its response together with the government authorities and partners.

Soup kitchens located in three camps – Teachers’ Village, Asheikh and Yerwa – aimed to provide nutritious hot meals for “50,000 of the worst affected children, women and men who have lost their homes”, WFP said.

But it emphasised that more assistance was needed.

“This is really an additional burden to already existing crises,” Bigenimana said. “This region has been facing conflict for more than a decade.”

He said Borno State was one of the areas worst affected by the “Boko Haram insurgency”.

“As of March, about 32 million people in the country were already facing acute hunger.

“More recently, we have seen food inflation. Food prices have been skyrocketing, really affecting millions of people who are facing food insecurity,” Bigenimana said.

“The impacts of extreme weather are being felt severely across the country.

“More than 550,000 hectares of cropland were destroyed and washed away in the flood.

Bigenimana said the WFP needed US$147.9 million to support food insecure people in Nigeria’s northeast in the coming six months.

For the flood-affected populations in Maiduguri, “recovery will take long,” Bigenimana said.

“We need more resources to save lives and to put together efforts to respond to the crises – and also to think of longer-term recovery and solutions.”

SHETTIMA LAWAN MONGUNO