Over 600 dead. More than 1.3 million people are displaced. The floods in Nigeria are the worst in a decade. The NOS spoke to a local reporter in the disaster area and a Nigerian political scientist in The Hague.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said journalist Racheal Ramson. In the past few days she has visited aid camps for people from flooded areas. “There are no mosquito nets and most of the children have become ill. They have malaria, high fever and diarrhea. There is a lack of food and clothing.”

The camps Ramson looked at are near the River Niger, which has burst its banks. The area is approximately thirty miles north of the large coastal town of Port Harcourt.

So far, 2,300 people have been injured across the country. It is estimated that 82,000 homes were destroyed by the floods, as well as around 110,000 hectares of farmland. Rice producers have warned the storm will push up food prices in the near future.

The largest medical society in Nigeria sets up field hospitals in all camps. Tomorrow, journalist Ramson will visit a location even closer to the worst-hit area in Rivers State.

Pictures of the floods:

Many Nigerians are angry with the federal government for ignoring warnings from its ranks. “Our Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Aid sounded the alarm in February and March,” says Ayokunu Adeokun, a political scientist at Leiden University College in The Hague. “She indicated at the time that we could expect severe flooding this year. The federal government has failed to take security measures. That is negligence.”

The ongoing criticism has to do, among other things, with an agreement that Nigeria has with its northern neighbor Cameroon, but is not sticking to. Cameroon opens the Lagdo Dam on the Benue River every year, causing high water levels in the Niger. When the dam was inaugurated in 1982, the two countries agreed that Cameroon would always warn neighboring Nigeria well in advance of the dam’s opening. Nigeria would also build a dyke for its own protection.

dyke under construction

“Cameroon is honoring this agreement, but the dyke we would build has been under construction for 20 years,” writes former presidential aide Reuben Abati. “We failed.”

Political scientist Adedokun adds that the southern state of River State systematically under-receives aid from the federal government when disaster strikes. “The Port Harcourt area provides the country with many raw materials, but the government often leaves the Niger Delta when help is needed. And because our elections are not fair, the residents of the delta region cannot hold the government to account.”

From her workplace in Port Harcourt, reporter Racheal Ramson sighs at the work ahead of her in the coming days. “It’s not easy to report on. Sometimes I have to paddle in a canoe to get to the places I need to be. But it is part of it.”