SEVERE flooding in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri has claimed at least 30 lives and forced 400,000 people from their homes, officials 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,” Umar said. He told the BBC’s Hausa language service that officials feared that number could reach one million.
