The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, at the weekend raised the alarm that more than 2.5 million people in Nigeria are in need of humanitarian assistance, 60 per cent of whom are children and are at increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning and malnutrition due to the most severe flooding in the past decade.
This is amidst concerns that Nigerians are going to get infected and many more may die from nationwide cholera outbreak fuelled by flooding, lack of proper environmental sanitation, as well as shortage of vaccines.
The floods, which have affected 34 out of 36 states in the country, have displaced 1.3 million people, with over 600 people dead and over 200,000 houses have either been partially or fully damaged.
Cases of diarrhoea and water-borne diseases, respiratory infection and skin diseases have already been on the rise. In the Northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe alone, a total of 7,485 cases of cholera and 319 associated deaths were reported as of October 12.
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UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, said children and adolescents in flood-affected areas are in an extremely vulnerable situation.
According to UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index Nigeria is considered at extremely high risk of the impacts of climate change, ranking second out of 163 countries.
