By Fatima Saka
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund Nigeria (UNICEF) has said Nigeria is extremely at higher risk of the impacts of climate action, rating second out of 163 countries.
UNICEF country representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, in a statement issued over the weekend, signed by Geoffrey Njoku of the fund’s communication unit.
The statement reflected that children in ‘extremely high risk’ countries are most likely to be exposed to multiple climate and environmental shocks combined with high levels of underlying child vulnerability, due to inadequate essential services, such as water and sanitation, healthcare and education.
The statement further said that more than 2.5 million people in Nigeria are in need of humanitarian assistance with 60 percent of them being children that are at increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning and malnutrition as a result of the flooding that has bedeviled the country.
“Floods have affected 34 out of the 36 states in the country, have displaced 1.3 million people, over 600 lost their lives and over 200,000 houses either partially or fully damaged.
“The floods, which have affected 34 out of the 36 states in the country, have displaced 1.3 million people. Over 600 people have lost their lives and over 200,000 houses have either been partially or fully damaged. Cases of diarrhoea and water-borne diseases, respiratory infection, and skin diseases have already been on the rise. In the north-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe alone, a total of 7,485 cases of cholera and 319 associated deaths were recorded by 12th October,” the statement read.
However, UNICEF’s commitment to work with the relevant government agencies and other partners to provide assistance to those communities affected.
