Flooding: 27 million youngsters at risk, 840,000 Nigerian children displaced -UNICEF says

• Massive flooding has had an impact on no fewer than 27.7 million children in 27 different countries around the world.
• UNICEF laments flooding in Nigeria has caused an estimated 840,000 children to be displaced.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said massive flooding has impacted no fewer than 27.7 million children in 27 different countries around the world.

The number of children affected by flooding in northeast Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Gambia, and Chad is at an all-time high, according to the UN agency. A large percentage of the impacted children were among the most vulnerable, according to a statement released by UNICEF on Tuesday.

Given the enormous scope of need, it was revealed that ongoing disasters were putting a strain on governments and the ability of the international community to act.

“With millions of children at severe risk of starvation, disease, exploitation, and death, the agency is calling for delegates at COP27 to commit to funding to protect children from the devastating effects of a changing climate,’’ said the UN agency.

According to UNICEF, this year’s floods have helped spread major children’s killers like malnutrition, malaria, cholera, and diarrhea. Additionally, the organization noted that children are frequently killed by floods’ aftermaths more often than by the extreme weather events that caused the flooding.

For instance, in recent months, floods in Nigeria caused an estimated 840,000 children to be displaced.

Floods in South Sudan have hampered the provision of 92,000 children with life-saving and preventative malnutrition services at 95 UNICEF-supported nutrition sites.

Heavy rains and flooding in Yemen triggered floods causing extensive damage to shelters in displacement sites. Up to 73,854 households were affected, and 24,000 households have been displaced. Children make their way home through contaminated floodwater in Jacobabad, Sindh province, Pakistan.

“COP27 provides an opportunity to chart a credible roadmap with clear milestones for finance for climate adaptation and solutions for loss and damage,” said Paloma Escudero, UNICEF’s Director of Global Communications and Advocacy.

She added that youngsters “from the most affected places on Earth are drowning in climate inaction. Enough is enough. Lives are on the line – children need action now.”

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Meanwhile, the traditional leaders in Bayelsa State have refuted claims that the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and it’s Joint Venture (JV) partners have delivered food and essential commodities to communities affected by floods in Bayelsa States.

Addressing journalists in Yenagoa, the chairman of the Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council and Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom, King Bubaraye Dakolo (AGADA IV), said that the report that NAOC made donations to 260 communities in River, Bayelsa, Delta, and Imo State is not only false but a figment of their imagination.

Speaking further, he said that the flood water has not only exposed the insincerity of International Oil Companies (IOCs) but the negligence of the Federal Government towards oil-producing states that were ravaged by the flood.

Lamenting further King Dakolo said “we also need not reiterate that our kingdoms and clans, our flood-ravaged kingdoms and clans, constitute crude oil blocs owned by persons and business concerns which regrettably, we do not own.

“Even though the gas flares are still burning-hot in our kingdoms despite the overwhelming floodwaters, today’s press conference would border on a subject that may not seem connected to oil and gas beyond the oil and gas monies used for governance.

“I am referring to monies with which to provide succor and welfare for the teeming number of Bayelsans who are internally displaced citizens of Nigeria, having been ravaged by the most devastating flood ever.

“We the royal fathers of Bayelsa State, have observed that not only did the 2022 flood unleash unprecedented havoc in Bayelsa State and beyond, it also opened the floodgates of ignorance on the subject of the misery floodwaters could unleash on a people who live on the flat arcuate lowlands adjacent the mighty Atlantic Ocean.

“We believe, and strongly so, that the misinformation we have been confronted with this season, may have directly led to the observed extremely slow, and almost shameful response by statutory agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria to the plight of the over one million victims of the 2022 flood disaster in Bayelsa State.

“Giving the wrong public perception of this year’s flood which is unarguably the worst ever to occur in the lives of the Ijaws of Bayelsa State, and perhaps others too, it has become absolutely necessary for the Royal Fathers of the State to speak out loud, so as to straighten the crooked records, and above all, jolt all concerned to do the work for which they are paid.

“We did not mince words in condemning the complete absence of agents of statutory Federal Government Agencies and Ministries saddled with the job of rendering assistance in our domains at times such as these. Rather we were seeing oil workers in their coveralls safe in their shuttles, going about their greasy, oily business, all over our flood-ravaged State.