'Nothing left' – Floods leave trail of hunger in West and Central Africa

The floods tore through Halima Mustapha’s home in northeastern Nigeria late at night, giving the 27-year-old mother and her family no warning. They fled minutes before the building collapsed, unable to take even the most basic necessities.

“We have not experienced this kind of flooding before,” says Mustapha, a widow and mother of two. “We have nothing left, not even food.”

Mustapha counts among millions of people across West and Central Africa affected by some of the most severe flooding in decades. Sparked by torrential rains, the floods have killed more than one thousand people and tens of thousands of livestock; destroyed homes, infrastructure and crops; and piled more misery on vulnerable communities already weathering hunger, unrest and soaring inflation.

As the rains continue, the World Food Programme (WFP) aims to reach nearly one million people across the region - including in other hard-hit countries like Mali, Chad and Niger -  with cash, take-home food and hot meals, along with nutritional assistance for children and breastfeeding women. Already, WFP support has reached tens of thousands, and we are further assessing overall needs to better prepare our longer-term response.

“It is always the most vulnerable who bear the brunt of climate hazards, and we cannot let them down," says Margot van der Velden, WFP Regional Director for Western Africa, who calls for urgent support to boost communities' resilience to recurrent shocks. "We need increased investments to better anticipate flooding and other extreme climate risks, to mitigate their impacts, and act in an anticipatory manner." 

In Nigeria, Mustapha and her family found shelter at a secondary school in nearby Maiduguri, capital of northeastern Borno state and the epicenter of the crisis. Swathes of the city are submerged after a dam nearby collapsed following torrential rains. Tin roofs peek out from brown floodwaters that have turned roads into rivers.

On drier land, schools and other makeshift emergency shelters are packed. At the school Mustapha and her family found refuge, some squeeze into classrooms to sleep, but many others spread sleeping mats outside the building, where it’s cooler and there’s more space.

“Maiduguri is facing crisis within a crisis, with conflict, record food price inflation and now floods displacing hundreds of thousands of people,” says WFP Nigeria Country Director David Stevenson, adding, “we need urgent global support to save lives.”

Maiduguri is not the only Nigerian city struggling with the deluge. Heavy rains and flooding have affected more than a million people across 16 of the country’s 36 states.

For now, WFP aims to reach nearly 450,000 people in the hardest-hit parts of Borno State with food relief, including take-home rations of rice and pulses. We are dispatching WFP-managed UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) helicopters to assess the damage, so the wider humanitarian community can better respond. At schools and other displacement shelters, WFP has also set up kitchens that serve up hot meals of rice and beans to roughly thousands of flood-affected families like Mustapha’s.

“With support from WFP, we now eat three times a day,” the young mother says, even as she worries about the future.  “We have no property, no place to stay,” Mustapha adds. “We are lucky just to be alive.”

Cash and nutritional support

In Mali, Aminata Toure and her eight children are also lucky to be alive. In mid-August, heavy rains demolished her home in the northeastern region of Gao, displacing thousands of people countrywide. Like Mustapha, Toure and her family are living in a school-turned-shelter.

“I’ve lost absolutely everything,” says Toure, a tradeswoman and sole family breadwinner since her husband lost his job. “Since the floods, I spend my days just sitting. I have nothing to do.”

The flooding is a further blow for Malians like Toure, who are struggling with myriad challenges, including frequent drought, conflict and high food prices. More than 1.3 million people in the country are acutely food-insecure. Even before the floods, the complex situation had already uprooted tens of thousands.

WFP plans to provide three months of cash assistance to nearly 70,000 flood-affected people in Gao and two other flood-hit areas, along with nutritional support to thousands of vulnerable women and children.

“We must continue to support communities and local governments in their investments in robust early warning systems,” says WFP Mali Interim Country Director Ibrahima Diallo of more longer-term support. “Such measures are crucial for safeguarding vulnerable populations, saving lives, facilitating swift recovery, and building a future where preparedness and resilience transform potential disasters into manageable challenges.”

Snapshot of desolation

Neighboring Niger, too, is struggling with heavy rains and flooding that have killed hundreds and delayed the new academic year.

“I am in despair, because I no longer have a home,” says 25-year-old Hadjara Karim, a mother of six, showing WFP the remnants of her collapsed mud-brick house, in Niger’s southeastern Maradi region. The sun is shining, but her surroundings are a snapshot of desolation.

Karim and her family initially sheltered with neighbors until the rains subsided. But today, the family sleeps outside, and faces the daunting task of rebuilding.

For now, WFP food and other assistance helps thousands of flood-hit Nigeriens cope with the aftermath. But the scale of the devastation is formidable, and many worry that more will follow.

“Even the elders say they’ve never experienced such a season in their lives,” Karim says. “If a season like this happens again next year or the coming years, our houses won’t stand - and there’s nothing we can do about it.” 

Learn more about WFP's work in Nigeria, Mali and Niger