natural disasters - The African Mirror

Oct

2022

Nigeria floods: expert insights into why they’re so devastating and what to do about them

NIGERIA is experiencing its worst flooding in over a decade. Over 1.4 million people have been displaced, 500 have been reported dead and thousands have been injured. Flooding isn’t a new challenge in Nigeria – it’s one of the country’s most prevalent natural disasters. During the rainy seasons, from March to July and mid-August to mid-October in the south, and July to October in the north, major rivers often burst their banks. Dams burst too. This causes flooding in numerous Nigerian states, among them Delta, Kogi, Anambra, Bayelsa, Adamawa and Niger. Various experts have written for The Conversation Africa on…

May

2022

By The African Mirror

‘World Falling Part”: Record number of people displaced in own countries

HUMAN RIGHTS

EMMA FARGE IN a world beset by conflicts and natural disasters, the number of people who fled their homes and sought shelter within their own countries hit a record high of close to 60 million by the end of last year, according to new data. Disasters, including weather events such as cyclones and floods in Asia as well as protracted conflicts in places like Syria, Afghanistan and Ethiopia were factors behind high levels of new displacements last year, according to the report compiled by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). "The world is falling apart, too many countries are…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Surge in natural disasters takes heavy human and economic toll – U.N.

WORLD

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY EXTREME weather events have increased dramatically in the past 20 years, taking a heavy human and economic toll worldwide, and are likely to wreak further havoc, the United Nations said on Monday. Heatwaves and droughts will pose the greatest threat in the next decade, as temperatures continue to rise due to heat-trapping gases, experts said. China (577) and the United States (467) recorded the highest number of disaster events from 2000 to 2019, followed by India (321), the Philippines (304) and Indonesia (278), the U.N. said in a report issued the day before the International Day for Disaster…