Humanitarian minister Sadiya Farouq says the federal government has provided medical support to 199 local government areas affected by flooding.

Ms Farouq briefed State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

She said that as of Friday, records indicated that no fewer than 3.2 million persons were affected by flooding in Nigeria.

“Today, with my colleague Minister of Water Resources, we made a presentation on the flood situation from the emergency and humanitarian aspect. We also have had (a) series of consultations after the predictions by NIMET. My ministry took proactive early action steps through (a) series of activities. We had (a) technical analysis that produced a 2022 Early Warning Document,” the minister explained.

According to her, letters were sent to state governments and a national consultative workshop on the 2022 flood preparedness, mitigation and response at the national and zonal levels was held.

“Unfortunately, in spite of all these efforts, the statistics of persons affected as of Friday showed that 3,219,780 persons were affected by the flood across the country. We have 1,427,370 persons that were internally displaced. We have 2776 persons that were injured. We also have 612 persons that lost their lives,” she explained.

Ms Farouq also said 181,600 houses were partially damaged while 123,807 houses were completely damaged, and 392,399 hectares of farmlands were totally destroyed.

The minister said the coordinated response presented an opportunity to operationalise the recently approved National Flood Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan.

“We have also sent out our search and rescue team that is being guided by a Search and Rescue and Epidemic Evacuation Plan. Their personnel and teams require specialised and technical training, personnel protection gear, and access to the right equipment,” added the humanitarian minister. “Most of these specialised officers are skilled in first aid, defensive swimming and also how to handle boats in the riverine areas. The efforts so far in these communities are still ongoing with the search and rescue.”

She also mentioned that “our search and rescue team, which is also responsible for evacuating people and providing life-saving first aid and medical support and referrals to hospitals, has also been able to reach 199 local government areas within 25 states of the federation.”

(NAN)