The Nigerian Red Cross Society acts to protect people ahead of floods

The Nigerian Red Cross Society has activated its Simplified Early Action Protocol (EAP) for Floods. Over the next 10 days, it will carry out a series of anticipatory actions to help 3,000 at-risk households to cope with the impacts.

On 9 September 2024, data from the Global Flood Awareness System clearly indicated that the trigger level set out in the Simplified EAP had been reached, and that there was an imminent flood risk over parts of Adamawa State. Based on this information, the Nigerian Red Cross Society decided to activate the EAP.

Nigeria’s central belt has seen high precipitation during August and early September. And many of the regions at risk are on the Benue River flood plain, which has seen a sudden rise in water levels – of up to 7.11m at Numan – due to discharge from the Gongola and Faro rivers, which lie upstream in Cameroon. Nigeria’s national hydrometeorological service also indicated that floods were also imminent in Nasarawa State.

IFRC funds help those at risk

By activating the Simplified EAP, the Nigerian Red Cross Society received 220,000 Swiss francs (259,000 US dollars / 234,000 euros) from the anticipatory pillar of the Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). These will now be used to support the anticipatory actions set out in the Simplified EAP, which include:

• a multipurpose cash distribution, with tasks including registering beneficiaries (via the Kobo Collect app) and distributing the cash; each beneficiary will receive a cash transfer worth 50,000 Naira (30 US dollars / 27 euros)
• advocacy with community stakeholders on issues related to risk reduction, climate adaptation and recovery
• community engagement and advocacy measures to raise awareness of the hazard, such as radio messages and informing the media.

These activities will target 1,500 households in Adamawa State, and, if resources allow, 1,500 households in Nasarawa state. Any remaining funds will be used to register beneficiaries in Akwa Ibom and Edo states.