Unprecedented Floods Exacerbate Humanitarian Crisis in West and Central Africa

The most severe floods in 30 years have pushed the West African region into a state of humanitarian emergency, causing multiple casualties and mass displacement. This year, floods have affected over 4.4 million people in West and Central Africa. In the first three weeks of September alone, over 2.1 million people were affected in 15 countries. Chad is the worst affected country, followed by Nigeria and Niger.

Hundreds of thousands of hectares of agricultural land, vital for local economies and food security, were destroyed, as well as various infrastructures and roads, further isolating people who were already living far from essential services, including health services. Access to education has also been compromised, as many schools have been destroyed, closed or used as shelters for affected communities.

It is important to understand why the effects of the floods in this area are so devastating: the countries involved are already facing humanitarian crises and dire needs, and the floods are ripping away from people what little they have. Having hectares and hectares of agricultural land flooded, in regions already facing severe levels of food insecurity, means that people can count on even less food. Most of these countries are also home to internally displaced persons and refugees, who see the water taking away the few things they have with them and destroying their only shelter. In eastern Chad, one of the camps housing part of the more than 600,000 Sudanese refugees in the country has been completely flooded.

Papy Kabwe – INTERSOS Regional Director West Africa

Due to climate change, temperatures in the Sahel region are rising much faster than the global average. Floods are becoming more frequent and every year cause increasingly devastating humanitarian consequences.

Forecasts indicate that the rains will continue in the coming months, increasing the risk of further flooding in various parts of the region. Our teams are making every effort to support the affected populations in Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon.

Nigeria

Heavy rains devastated 30 of Nigeria’s 36 states. According to the government, more than one million people were affected, 269 people lost their lives in the floods, and more than 640,000 were displaced from their homes.

On 9 September 2024, in Borno State, rains caused the Alau Dam to collapse, submerging half of the city of Maiduguri. Many of the people affected were already displaced by armed conflict and climate change. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reports that more than half a million people have been displaced by the floods in the north-east and north-west states, adding to the more than 3.6 million internally displaced persons in the same areas as of June 2024. Already in August, before the dam collapse, rains and floods had affected more than 120,000 people in the state of Borno, while 800,000 people were affected throughout the country.

The population is in urgent need of food, drinking water, safe shelters and sanitation. The emergency is also exacerbating child malnutrition, destroying food supplies and disrupting agricultural activities, in a country where 31.8 million people suffer from severe food insecurity, the highest number globally. The floods also left many children separated from their families and at high risk of exploitation and abuse, including child labour and early marriage.

INTERSOS in Nigeria was one of the first organisations to intervene, providing life-saving aid to the population despite great difficulties. The flood invaded our Malnutrition Stabilisation Centre, a critical facility where we provide care for the most vulnerable children in the region. INTERSOS staff managed to safely evacuate all the children, caregivers and staff, ensuring that care could continue uninterrupted in another safe place and providing timely treatment for malnourished children. Despite limited resources, our staff worked tirelessly during the night of 11 September, providing thousands of people with emergency food and, in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), we initiated activities to distribute hot meals to displaced families in the Maiduguri area. We have initiated malnutrition treatment programmes (OTP) in the new IDP settlements, and are carrying out cleaning and repair work in the supported health centres. In the camps hosting the displaced population, we have also initiated psychological first aid (PFA) and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response activities.

Chad

In Chad, floods have affected 1.5 million people, including more than 12,000 in the east, which since April 2023 has witnessed the exodus of more than 600,000 Sudanese refugees fleeing the war. According to the UNHCR, 45,000 refugees have been affected. The rains affected the entire country, particularly the provinces of Tandjile, Mayo-Kebbi East, Logone and Lac. More than 164,000 homes were destroyed and 260,000 hectares of cultivated land was washed away, severely compromising food supplies in a country already struggling with chronic food insecurity.

Our teams are supporting the affected population through the distribution of essential non-food items kits to affected families in N’Djamena. However, we had to temporarily suspend our protection activities in Daguessa, Sila, due to the inaccessibility of the road.

Niger

For Niger, the current floods are the worst in a decade. 1.2 million people are affected by the floods, with 339 deaths and 125,000 homes destroyed. Maradi is the worst affected region, followed by Tillabéri, Zinder, Tahoua, Dosso, Diffa, Agadez and Niamey.

The rains destroyed agricultural land and food stocks, contributing significantly to the increase in the number of people experiencing severe food insecurity in all areas of the country. Similarly, health and school buildings were also severely damaged by the floods, and inadequate sanitation in flood-affected areas increases health risks, particularly for water-borne diseases such as cholera.

Our activities in the country are proceeding uninterruptedly, but our teams face significant problems of access to some affected areas, especially in Niamey.

Cameroon

The recent floods in Cameroon mainly affected the Far North, where the rapidly rising Logone and Chari rivers submerged entire villages and displaced thousands of people. More than 365,000 people have been affected. The rains are continuing to raise the water level and threaten to worsen the situation. The torrential rains have destroyed more than 56 thousand homes, flooded tens of thousands of hectares of crops and caused the loss of thousands of animals.

Our teams are engaged in initiating emergency food and cash distributions, as well as food aid for moderately malnourished children from 6 to 23 months.

Mali

This year, the flood season in Mali started early, with significant flooding in July, mainly affecting the Segou region. Between August and September, heavy rains hit the Ségou and San regions, causing flooding in several municipalities, affecting 14,400 people and resulting in eight deaths. Basic social services were severely affected by the floods: 2,745 water points were damaged and 5,780 latrines destroyed, while the Health Referral Centre in Bla was taken out of service.

In a country where the lean season had already pushed many communities to the brink of famine, families relying on subsistence farming and pastoralism to survive lost everything to the rains. Over 5,700 hectares of fields have been destroyed.

So far, none of our structures have been damaged. However, there is a risk that the health centres in Souala and Syn, where we operate in the municipality of Djénné, will be damaged if the rains continue. The river and its tributaries are overflowing and Souala village is only accessible by pirogue. The risk of river flooding remains very high in the Mopti region. According to the Directorate General of Civil Protection, the water level of the Niger River is currently 670 cm, 20 cm above the warning level.