Nigeria flood survivors left high and dry

Maiduguri (AFP) — A year after the floodwaters crashed through the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the place where Maryam Jidda’s house used to stand is still an empty patch of mud.

More than 300,000 residents were displaced and dozens killed when a dam outside the city burst in September 2024, the aging structure suddenly ripped apart after years of neglect and abnormally heavy rains.

The mass displacement added to the pressure Maiduguri was already under — a city where tens of thousands of people were already living in camps or on the streets after fleeing militant groups Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province.

Today, many flood victims are little better off than they were a year ago.

Jidda and her nine children now live with a neighbor, crammed into a single room.

“When the flood came, everything we owned was destroyed,” Jidda, 75, told AFP.

Her family was already destitute when the flood came, after her son, the main breadwinner, died. 

She was eking out a living selling kola nuts, a traditional stimulant, but has been unable to raise the capital to restart her business since the disaster. 

She now lives on the “kindness of neighbors.”

Jidda first came to Maiduguri 11 years ago, running from jihadists, who since 2009 have been waging a war against the state in a bid to carve out their own caliphate.

She was among the few fortunate who could avoid the displacement camps. Her family purchased a two-bedroom house in the city’s densely populated Gwange neighborhood.

Aisha Ali Adamu, a 45-year-old widow, and her eight children have also been living on handouts from neighbors and local charities since she lost her home in the flood.