CLAIM: Indus Climate Front, a non-governmental organisation, mobilising for climate justice across Pakistan and South Asia made a claim on Twitter that Nigeria is facing the worst floods in decades.
The organisation in its Sept. 25 post said more than 300 people had died and millions displaced due to the rise in water level in the country. It added, as well, that thousands of children are at risk of starvation, with this disturbing development.
Experts, the post said, have predicted more rains in coming weeks; and noted that “climate change is causing horrors in the global South. #ClimateEmergency.”
Indus Climate Front is new on the social network platform for its account @IndusClimate was created on Sept. 17; thus, it has only 72 followers.
VERIFICATION: Truly 2022 flood may assume the worst in the history of the country. As of September, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed more than 300 killed, so far, in flood disasters across Nigeria in 2022.
These casualties are only 63 less than the number in 2012, the year known for the worst flood in Nigeria’s history. So the claim is correct that more than 300 people have died from flooding this year and there is a chance that the figure may rise before the end of October as flood is yet to decrease in many states of the country.
However, on the claim that millions are homeless due to the flooding in September, the spokesperson of the emergency management agency, Mr Manzo Ezekiel only reported that 100,000 persons were displaced.
Ezekiel explained, nonetheless, that the floods in 27 states of Nigeria’s 36 and the capital city have affected 500,000 people.
This disaster, he said, also destroyed thousands of hectares of farmland, thereby worsening fears of a disruption of food supply in Africa’s most populous country.
“Since 2012, this is the highest we ever had,” said the spokesperson for the disaster management agency.
CONCLUSION: The claim that “Nigeria is facing worst floods in decades. More than 300 people have died and millions are homeless. Thousands of children are at risk of starvation. Experts have predicted more rains in the coming weeks. Climate change is causing horrors in the global South. #ClimateEmergency” is PARTLY FALSE. While it is true that more than 300 people have been killed in flood disasters as of September 25, 2022, it is FALSE that millions are rendered homeless.
Editor’s note: the flooding in Nigeria is still ongoing and the casualty figures keep rising, but the fact check was in order at the time the report was published on Oct 12, 2022.
This fact-check was produced by BONews Service with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, International Fact-Checking Network, and African Fact-Checking Alliance network.