Death toll rises to 43 in the Adamawa flood disaster

by Akan Ido

The death toll following the September 2 flood which submerged several villages in some local government areas of Adamawa State have risen to 43.

Many more people are still missing while bodies are being recovered in trickles from the river.

The number of deaths may rise from the deluge that spread to 11 local governments when water was released from the Lagdo Dam on the Cameroon side of the River Benue.

Mallam Abubakar Aliyu who is one of the survivors of the flood said,”I am lucky because most of my children were in my elder bother’s house in Yola for holiday; if not, only God knows what would have happened to me.”

Aliyu lost two wives and five children to the flood and his presently with other displaced people at the Lamurde refugee camp of the Government Day Secondary School, Lamurde.

There are fears of an epidemic in the aftermath of the flood which, according to Lillian Stephen, the state commissioner for health, submerged pit toilets, and exhumed buried bodies.

She stressed that fertilizers applied on crops had been mixed with stream or well water, which, she said, was the main source of drinking water of some of the affected areas.

The health commissioner stated that mobile clinics have been established in all the refugee camps with qualified medical personnel attached to the centres to prevent a possible outbreak of epidemic.

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