More than 200 inmates escaped from a prison in north-east Nigeria after the worst flooding in the region in over 20 years, according to authorities.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reported 37 deaths in Borno state after a dam collapse on 9 September flooded parts of Maiduguri, the capital, displacing as many as 200,000 people. Some areas remained underwater when President Bola Tinubu visited on Monday, residents said.
On Sunday, Abubakar Umar, spokesperson for the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS), revealed that 281 inmates had fled while being transferred to a secure facility after their prison was flooded. Seven were recaptured, but 274 remain at large. “The flood caused the collapse of walls at the medium-security Maiduguri custodial center and staff quarters,” Umar said.
The NCS has launched a search for the escapees with the help of other security agencies.
Local reports indicated that reptiles, lions, and other wildlife from Maiduguri’s Sanda Kyarimi Park zoo had been swept into residential areas by the severe flooding.
Flood victims are currently housed in temporary shelters in six camps across the city. Maiduguri, the origin of Boko Haram’s 15-year insurgency, had once hosted camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the same locations, but many were closed in recent years as authorities sought to resettle people in rural areas. Relief supplies have arrived from the federal government and the UAE.
With 31.8 million Nigerians already facing the threat of severe food insecurity, the situation may worsen, particularly in the north, which is at the center of the extreme weather crisis. There are also concerns about a possible cholera outbreak in overcrowded camps.
“The region is on high alert for disease outbreaks like cholera, malaria, typhoid, as well as zoonotic diseases,” said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
In April, Nigeria’s Hydrological Services Agency warned of impending floods in most of the country’s 36 states. This year, the rainfall has exceeded averages due to the increasing impacts of climate change.
As of 10 September, 29 states had been affected, with 1.3 million hectares of land submerged, half of which is cropland, according to FAO.
“The scale of this flooding in Maiduguri has far exceeded our estimates,” said Vice President Kashim Shettima during an assessment visit.
Floods are also affecting neighboring Cameroon, where dykes in the Far North region collapsed on 28 August, destroying 3,700 homes. Nigeria’s Benue River, which passes through Cameroon, regularly floods when Cameroon’s Lagdo dam is opened. Adamawa, a neighboring state to Borno, is said to be “at imminent risk” due to a potential dam discharge.
While the Nigerian government is committed to addressing this issue, aid workers argue that the current infrastructure is overwhelmed. Suwaiba Dankabo, deputy director of Action Aid Nigeria, said at a Friday press conference, “Destroyed road and transport networks are making it difficult to deliver essential aid.”
