Hundreds killed in Nigeria floods, more than 1.4 million displaced
May 30, 2019, 2:00 am
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The NATION | In floods that hit Nigeria, more people drowned than died in previous years when the rains hit the country. In the worst-hit area, Rivers state in the northeast, more than 1.4 million people were displaced as the floods continued to spread. Authorities were evacuating the areas.
The NATION | A Nigerian soldier with an aerial view of the flooding in parts of the northeast. The NATION | A Nigerian soldier with an aerial view of the flooding in parts of the northeast.
NIGERIA – Flooding in parts of Nigeria this week was the worst in the country in at least 30 years, according to an army spokesman. But the scale of the devastation was nowhere near the scale of the massive 2011 cyclone that killed nearly 20,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.
Officials in the northwestern state of Adamawa recorded more deaths than in previous years when the rains hit. More than a million people were displaced, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Nigeria’s civil defense office said 4,000 soldiers were deployed to the state to help manage displaced people.
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The army spokesman, Col. Iyabo Ighobor, said more than 1,000 people died in the flooding, including soldiers and people in the military.
“It is unfortunate that the rains continue to affect and impact some parts of the north of the country,” he said.
Ighobor said 3.7 million people were affected by the rains, with 1.4 million being displaced. The United Nations estimated that the death toll from the floods was more than 300.
The worst-hit state was Adamawa in the northeast, with at least 626 people dead. More than 3,000 homes were destroyed, including some in Adam