It's Nigeria's turn to be submerged underwater due to climate-driven extreme rainfall

"We are facing devastating floods beyond our control. We have tried our best, and we couldn't stop it." Yusuf Sani Babura, Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency

Africa's most populous nation is at risk of food shortages after heavy rainfall washed away farmland in the nation's food belt in the north, an indicator of climate change as a threat multiplier with aging poorly designed infrastructure, which enhances destructive flooding. Pakistan was inundated with heavy rainfall that killed thousands, and flash flooding in Puerto Rico brought by Hurricane Fiona.

Hundred of people died during the deluge in a situation that the government called  "beyond our control. The flooding inundated 27 of the 36 states, including the capital city of Abuja.

The northern region of Nigeria is the food basket for the country. Those crops have washed away, and Nigeria now faces a food crisis exacerbated by food disruption from armed conflict in the north. Flooding is yet another example of unprecedented climate change impacts on agriculture worldwide.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has alerted that the food crisis might hit over 16.9 million Nigerians in 2022, as consumption is expected to slightly worsen, due to possible reduction in household, market stocks and rise in prices. 

Note the data above was from August of 2022 and does not include September's impacts on agriculture and starvation.

From The Guardian:

Nigeria sees flooding every year, often as a result of non-implementation of environmental guidelines and inadequate infrastructure. Authorities are blaming the floods this year on water overflowing from local rivers, unusual rainfalls and the release of excess water from Lagdo dam in neighbouring Cameroon’s northern region.

The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency predicted more floods in 2022 than last year due to “excessive rainfalls and contributions from external flows” such as the dam in Cameroon.

On Monday, Nigeria’s disaster management agency alerted more than a dozen states of “serious consequences” in the coming weeks as two of the country’s dams started to overflow.

“I want to advise all the governments of the frontline states to move away communities at risk of inundation, identify safe higher grounds for evacuation of persons and prepare adequate stockpiles of food and non-food items,” said the head of Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency, Mustapha Habib Ahmed.