On 10 September 2024, the Alau Dam in Borno State, northeast Nigeria, collapsed due to heavy rains, causing major floods in the city of Maiduguri. The deluge has heavily impacted houses, markets, fields, livestock, and several health facilities. According to UN figures, over 400,000 people were affected, including 300,000 displaced to temporary makeshift displacement sites – mostly schools with too few latrines and a lack of safe drinking water.

MSF teams have started the provision of essential services such as access to water through water-trucking and water tanks, the installation and repair of latrines, and the distribution of mosquito nets. Teams also started running outpatient consultations in the sites, including mental health support, and referred critical patients to the facilities we support. Given the risks posed by malaria and cholera, MSF has also extended the paediatric facility it supports by 100 beds to meet the demand of the increased malaria cases and launched the setting up of a 100-bed cholera treatment centre.

Our teams on the ground are highly concerned about the significant risk of malaria and outbreaks of waterborne diseases including cholera and fears for a potential increase of the levels of malnutrition in this area. In the past months, hundreds of severely malnourished children were admitted every week in the MSF inpatient hospital. Admissions to the nutritional facilities had just started to reduce when the flooding occurred. Given the economic impact of the flooding, the harvest damaged and livestock washed away, there is huge concern that the downward trend reverses and admissions rise again.