Responders to Nigeria’s flood crisis are themselves affected by crisis

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – Flash floods throughout West and Central Africa have left more than 5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance across Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and other countries in the region. Torrential rainfall has disrupted access to essential services and increased the threat of disease, including a regional outbreak of cholera. The humanitarian response has been hindered by extensive damage to infrastructure; meanwhile, local humanitarian responders have themselves been impacted by the disaster. 

“The water reached up to our chests,” Fatima Ali told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. She lives in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, where flooding caused the Alau Dam to collapse. “We kept walking for two hours through the flooded roads.”

Ms. Ali is a community mobilizer, working with UNFPA to improve knowledge about sexual and reproductive health and rights and to help survivors of gender-based violence. She was also, at the onset of the flood crisis in late summer, nine months pregnant.

“It happened two weeks before my expected delivery date. Because I am pregnant, I couldn’t walk on my own. It was my husband who helped me move through the water,” she said.

Women and girls disproportionately affected

The needs are acute in this region-wide crisis, with women and girls disproportionately affected. As primary caregivers, they face exposure to disease outbreaks, for example, but are in some cases not permitted to seek health services.

Extreme weather events have outsize impacts on women and girls. Vulnerability to gender-based violence rises, and alarming indications of this are already being observed in flood-hit countries like Cameroon, where data shows an increased risk of early and forced marriage and intimate partner violence. 

With access to sexual and reproductive health services limited, pregnant women are also at escalated risk of miscarriage and obstetric complications. The hunger crisis – already impacting 55 million people throughout the region – may also seriously impact pregnant and breastfeeding women, who have increased nutritional needs.  

More than 1 million people in Nigeria require assistance amid the current crisis, and Borno State is the worst hit, with more than 400,000 people displaced. 

Ms. Ali is one of them. She and her husband had to relocate to temporary housing. 

Still, she said, “even with the flood, I still go to work. The reason is that I want to encourage other women.”

She identifies deeply with those she helps. “The work that UNFPA does, we prioritize maternal health above all… And when I give birth, I will be more passionate about helping women, having had firsthand experience of what motherhood is like.”

Health, protection and psychosocial care

UNFPA is working with partners to meet the needs of some 91,000 displaced people. More than 5,500 people have been reached with services. These include sexual and reproductive health care, such as antenatal services, safe delivery care and family planning counselling, as well as prevention and response services addressing gender-based violence. 

More than 14,000 displaced people have received information about sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence and the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse. Over 1,500 dignity kits containing essential hygiene supplies including menstrual pads, underwear and soap have been distributed in flood-affected areas. 

Affected populations are also in need of psychosocial support, which includes psychological first aid. 

Mustapha Hussein, also in Maiduguri, is familiar with this kind of care – he is usually the one referring people to it. “As a humanitarian worker, it is not easy providing assistance for the affected population when you are also affected,” he said. 

Mr. Hussein is a digital literacy facilitator with UNFPA. “Almost all of our community was submerged by floods.” He and his family had to make their way to a displacement camp on foot. “To trek from here for 7 km to the camp was not easy. And then it was also terrible and scary.” 

The psychosocial support has helped, he said. “Now I am recovering and bouncing back.” 

Still, he has a long road ahead of him. “My next line of action is to start building my home from scratch.” Even so, he is continuing his outreach work. “As a humanitarian worker and someone that grew up in a complex emergency situation, this flood hasn’t hindered me.”