FLOOD: ALeP urges NEMA, Anambra State govt to assist Awba-Ofemili victims - NaijaAgroNet

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The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Anambra State government led by Prof. Chukwuma Soludo have been asked to urgently assist flood victims in Awba-Ofemili town among others.

Awba-Ofemili is a community in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State and was heavily ravaged by the recent flood, sacking some villages including in Umuosite and some parts of Ege, Nkpuocha, Oka-akwu, Ngene Nkpumekwu communities to name a few.

NEMA says flood alert is alarming, urgent – NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

The Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr Mustapha Maihaja, has described the current flood alert in the country as alarming and urgent, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking at the joint emergency meeting called by NEMA and National Hydrological Services Agencies (NHISA) in Abuja, Maihaja warned that over 12 states across the country would soon experience flooding due to torrential rain falls and described the development as disturbing.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the meeting also reviewed the situation with a view to classifying the possible dangers, assess preparedness at individual and collective levels.
Maihaja said that this was to ensure that every relevant agency was ready for any eventuality, if the water level keeps increasing.

“This is a serious meeting; we must put heads together to first classify the situation, whether it is still yellow or red. If it is red, surely we should act and part of the acting is the suggestion to set up a committee of five groups of three personnel from various sector to visit the frontline states.

“It is for them to meet with the officials, go down to the villages that are really critically under threat and use all avenues to enlighten them. To invigorate our enlightenment campaign electronically and physically to ensure that everybody is well informed as required by the law.

“Secondly, we access our preparedness, informing our stakeholders so that wherever there is any equipment that is required, it is ready for deployment, should anything happens,” Maihaja said.

Further, he called on state governments to provide alternative accommodation for those in the flood-affected areas so that they do not camp in schools, especially as the schools would soon be open.


Other stakeholders at the meeting comprised representatives from the Defence Headquarters, Federal Fire Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC), relevant UN agencies and other international organisations.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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Malnutrition: NEMA commences feeding of 1.6m IDPs in Borno State

NaijaAgroNet:

The North-East zonal office of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Maiduguri, has commenced direct responsibility of daily feeding of estimated 1.6 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), reports NaijaAgroNet.

This present activity, NaijaAgroNet learnt has taken off at various resettlement camps and other satellite centres across Borno State, in effort to address malnutrition and other related humanitarian issues currently being faced by IDP camps.

The North East Coordinator of the agency, Mallam Mohammed Kanar, made this disclosure at the flag-off of the distribution and presentation of relief items to officials of State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, for onward delivery to IDPs in the state.

“The decision to resume 100% feeding of IDPs by NEMA is to complement effort of the state government and other humanitarian agencies. With sustained effort by the military in liberating many communities, more IDPs are now willing to go back to their communities to continue their normal lives” he said.

He pointed out, NEMA was solely feeding the IDPs, but it stopped doing so in the last two to three months following coordinated effort by the federal and the state government and other international donor agencies in managing the crisis.

He noted that with concerted efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari towards the plight of IDPs and victims of insurgency, NEMA had been mandated to resume and take care of feeding of IDPs.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that recently, officials of Medicine San Frontiers, known as Doctors without Borders, reported that there was acute malnutrition and food crisis at various camps in Borno State, leading to deaths, but the state government through Governor Kashim Shettima denied the report.

The governor insisted that those that suffered severe malnutrition in Bama and other camps were some hostages freed from insurgency, who spent over two years in captivity without enough food and access to health care delivery before they were taken to IDP camps.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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