Jibia flood: SEMA registers over 1,500 victims as IDPs

Katsina State Emergency Management Agency says it has registered more than 1,500 flood victims in Jibia Local Government Area of the state, as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
Umar Muhammad, the Public Relations Officer, SEMA, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Jibia.
He said that most of the victims were women and children.
Muhammad said that the state government and NEMA had provided relief materials to the victims, to ease their hardships.
He further said that the IDPs were in good health condition, adding that medical personnel had been deployed to the camp to provide healthcare services.
NAN reports that the flood which occurred three days ago, led to the loss of over 50 lives, while 20 others still missing.
The disaster also rendered more than 1,000 people homeless and hundreds of animals were killed.
Governor Aminu Masari told newsmen that the incident was ‘’purely a natural disaster’’.
Masari added: “The water from the river moved in a reversed order, coming back to the town through the drainage and caused the flooding.
“The water level is above 10 feet heights, it is purely a natural disaster as the state government had constructed drainages emptying into Jibia river.”
Masari said that the state government had also directed the Ministry of Environment to look at the possibility of diverting the water in the drainage from directly emptying into the river.
Some of the corpses were removed from the river and the collapsed buildings.
In a related development, the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, visited the state on Tuesday and commiserated with the state government and the victims.
He pledged that the Federal Government would join hands with the state government to compensate and assist in rebuilding the collapsed houses, where necessary.