Nigeria Floods Kill Hundreds and Displace Over a Million, Report Finds
Nigeria has been hit with a series of devastating floods and a massive, long-term migration. The rains have been the deadliest in Africa since the 2013 drought that killed hundreds of thousands of people. The country has been hit especially hard, with more than 1 million people displaced and more than 200,000 killed.
It’s been a devastating year for the country. The floods have killed hundreds, but have displaced an even greater number.
The United Nations reports that over 1.3 million people have been displaced by the floods. Many of them have been forced from their homes in the flood-ravaged north to a sprawling area of mostly rural areas in the south, where some villages have been isolated from each other by rivers, roads and other obstacles. In total, more than 1.2 million people have been displaced by the rains.
That compares to an average of 554,000 displaced for every category of disaster during the entire year of 2013, according to a report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The report says over half of the victims were children and young people, and nearly one in eight were women and children.
The FAO warns that over 15 million people could be at risk of food insecurity in the coming weeks and months as the floods continue through the country.
Floods, hunger and migration
Flooding isn’t new to Nigeria. Since 1960, the country has experienced 11 major flooding events, resulting in over 4 million people being displaced and losing homes.
Nigeria’s population increased to over 169 million people by the end of 2018 from 141 million in 1960. The country is considered to be one of the world’s fastest developing countries, with over 60 million children living in poverty.
The country was hit with its worst drought between 2000 and 2012, which killed around 10 percent of the country’s population. The flooding has been the latest of many natural disasters to hit the country, which