20100925
RFI

Some two million people in northern Nigeria have been displaced after river authorities opened floodgates at two dams, officials said on Saturday. Water from the Challawa and Tiga dams has affected about 5,000 nearby villages, covering swathes of farmland and sending residents seeking shelter on higher ground.

Heavy rains prompted authorities in Kano state to open the dams to prevent overflowing.

The procedure is undertaken yearly during Nigeria's rainy season, but officials say that exceptionally heavy rainfall this year resulted in more water than usual being released.

Low-lying Jigawa state, on Nigeria's border with Niger, has borne the brunt of the flooding.

The local Red Cross estimates that at least 350,000 houses have been destroyed by the floods, a situation it describes as "catastrophic".

Around 90,000 hectares of farmland have been washed away.

The cost of the losses amounts to some 4.5 billion naira, according to Umar Kyari, a spokesman for the Jigawa state governor.

The decision to open floodgates in Kano state has resulted in floods before, Kyari told RFI, arguing that river authorities should have put in place a programme to protect residents in low-lying areas.

"The state government here in Jigawa state is appealing that maybe the federal government can hand over the administration of these waters to the affected states of Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Yobe and Borno," he says.

Several states in northern Nigeria, including Jigawa and Sokoto, had already been hit by severe flooding this year.

The Doctors Without Borders aid group estimates that some 40,000 people remain displaced in northern Sokoto after a dam burst earlier this month.