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GUBIO: Unrelenting price rises and a brutal insurgency had already made it hard for Nigerians in northeastern Borno State to feed their families. When a dam collapsed in September, flooding the state capital and surrounding farmland, many people ran out of options.
Now they queue for handouts in camps for those displaced by fighting between extremist Boko Haram rebels and the military. When those run out, they seek work on local farms where they risk being killed or raped by local bandits.
“I can’t even cry anymore. I’m too tired,” said Indo Usman, who tried to start again in the state capital Maiduguri, rearing animals for the two annual Muslim holy days, after years of repeatedly fleeing rebel attacks in rural Borno.
The flood washed that all away, driving her, her husband and their six children to a bare room at Gubio, an unfinished housing project about 96 km (60 miles) northwest of Maiduguri that has become a displacement camp.
Torrential rains and floods in 29 of Nigeria’s 36 states this year have destroyed more than 1.5 million hectares of cropland, affecting more than nine million people, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Climate change is a factor, as is Nigeria’s poorly maintained or non-existent infrastructure as well as vulnerabilities caused by the weakening Naira currency and the scrapping of a government fuel subsidy.
The cost of staples like rice and beans has doubled, tripled or even quadrupled in a year, depending on location — an unmanageable shock for millions of poor families.
Mass kidnappings for ransom in the northwest and conflict between farmers and pastoralists in the central belt, traditionally the nation’s bread basket, have also disrupted agriculture and squeezed food supplies.

’HUNGRIEST OF THE HUNGRY’
Roughly 40 percent of Nigeria’s more than 200 million people live below the international poverty line of $2.15 per person per day, the World Bank estimates.
Already, 25 million people live in acute food and nutrition insecurity — putting their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger, according to a joint analysis by the government and UN agencies. That number is expected to rise to 33 million by next June-August.
“The food crisis in Nigeria is immense because what we are seeing is a crisis within a crisis within a crisis,” said Trust Mlambo, head of program for the northeast at the World Food Programme, in an interview with Reuters in Maiduguri.
With international donors focused on emergencies in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, Mlambo said there was not enough funding to fully meet Nigeria’s growing need for food aid.
“We are really prioritising the hungriest of the hungry,” he said.
In Borno, the Alau dam, upriver from Maiduguri, gave way on Sept. 9, four days after state officials had told the public it was secure. Local residents and engineers had been warning that it was under strain.
Hundreds of people were killed in the resulting flood, according to aid workers who did not wish to be identified for fear of offending the state government. A spokesperson for the state government did not respond to requests for comment.
Zainab Abubakar, a self-employed tailor in the city who lived in relative comfort with her husband and six children in a house with a refrigerator, was awoken at midnight by water rushing into her bedroom.
They ran for their lives while the flood destroyed their house and carried everything away, including her sewing machine. Now, they are sheltering at Gubio and collecting rice from aid agencies in a plastic bucket.
“There is no alternative,” she said.
In Banki, on Nigeria’s border with Cameroon about 133 km (83 miles) southeast of Maiduguri, Mariam Hassan lost crops of maize, pepper and then okra in repeated flooding of her subsistence farm this year, leaving her with nothing to eat or sell.
“I beg the neighbors or relatives to give me food, not even for me but for my children, for us to survive,” said Hassan, who has eight children. “The situation has turned me into a beggar.”

BRUSSELS: US top diplomat Antony Blinken will meet with NATO and EU officials Wednesday to urgently discuss ramping up support for Ukraine before Donald Trump reclaims the White House — potentially jeopardizing future aid.
After landing in Brussels late Tuesday, the secretary of state’s one-day visit will see him meet NATO chief Mark Rutte, European Union diplomacy boss Josep Borrell, his successor Kaja Kallas and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga.
The emergency trip comes as Trump’s election victory, coupled with a political crisis in Germany, heightens fears about the future of assistance for Ukraine at a key point in the fight against Russia’s invasion.
Trump has in the past voiced admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and scoffed at the $175 billion the United States committed for Ukraine since the start of the war in 2022.
The 78-year-old tycoon, who will be inaugurated on January 20, spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after winning re-election following a first stint as president between 2017 and 2021.
He has boasted he can end the war in a day, likely by forcing concessions from Ukraine, although his newly named national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said Trump may also pressure Putin.
The Washington Post reported the Republican leader also held a phone call with Putin and discouraged an escalation by Russia. The Kremlin denied the report.
The US election came as Ukraine was already bracing for the impact of thousands of North Korean troops whom US intelligence agencies say have been sent to fight for Russia — a potentially major escalation in the conflict.
US media reported Trump might pick Republican Senator Marco Rubio to replace Blinken as secretary of state.
Rubio is seen as more supportive of Kyiv but has also said Washington should show “pragmatism” rather than sending billions of dollars more in weapons as the war hit a “stalemate.”
The Biden administration has made clear it plans in its remaining weeks to push through the more than $9 billion of remaining funding appropriated by Congress for weapons and other security assistance to Ukraine.
Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, expected the United States to focus in particular on sending vehicles, medical supplies and small-arms ammunition, which Ukraine needs and the United States can provide.
“Between now and the end of the administration, they’re going to try to ship everything they can that’s available,” Cancian said.
Despite Kyiv’s pleas it seems unlikely, however, that Washington will lift its veto on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory.
Both Ukraine and Moscow have seen a spike in drone attacks. The New York Times reported that Russia has amassed 50,000 troops, including North Koreans, to attempt to dislodge Ukrainian forces who seized parts of Russia’s Kursk region several months ago.
“The situation on the battlefield is difficult. And that’s why we must keep working every day,” Kallas, who is to take over as the EU’s top diplomat next month subject to parliament’s green light, told lawmakers on Tuesday.
“Today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes and with as much military, financial and humanitarian help as needed.”
Trump in his first term aggressively pushed Europe to step up defense spending and questioned the fairness of the NATO transatlantic alliance — robustly defended by Biden.
“Whatever approach the US leadership takes toward Ukraine, Europe will have to step up, and we will have to take the lead in supporting Ukraine’s defense efforts and macro financial stability,” said Olena Prokopenko of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
“Unfortunately, Donald Trump’s win comes at arguably the worst possible time in terms of Europe’s political and economic shape and its ability to promptly coordinate.”