Halimatu Yauri
Floodwaters have devastated Kebbi State, leaving 29 dead and destroying 321,000 homes and 858,000 farmlands across 16 of the state’s 21 local government areas.
The disaster has severely impacted key crops such as rice, maize, and guinea corn, raising concerns about potential food shortages.
During a briefing with journalists in Birnin Kebbi on Friday, the state Commissioner for Information, Yakubu Ahmed, expressed the urgency of the situation, warning, “If help did not come to the affected areas where rice, maize, guinea corn, and other crops were destroyed by the flood, there might be a shortage of food in the state and Nigeria at large.”
Ahmed explained that even before NiMET had predicted Kebbi would be among the worst affected, the state had already suffered significant flooding due to water from the Goronyo dam and the convergence of waters from River Rima and River Kaa through River Niger.
Despite government interventions, the state remained highly vulnerable.”Only 5 out of the 16 local governments of the state are minimally affected. The flood has destroyed farmlands, bridges, and thousands of households,” he noted, confirming the death toll with “seven persons in Shanga, eight in Maiyama, five in Kalgo, seven in Jega, and two in Birnin Kebbi so far.”
Ahmed called on the federal government, corporations, and individuals to provide immediate assistance, stressing that the magnitude of the damage far exceeded what the state government could manage on its own.