ABUJA, Nigeria: A dam collapsed in northeastern Nigeria on Tuesday, triggering severe flooding that forced evacuations and swept deadly reptiles from a zoo into nearby communities, local officials and a zoo manager said.
The collapse of the Alau Dam in Borno state has triggered one of the worst floods in the state since the same dam collapsed 30 years ago and forced many residents to flee their homes. The dam was at capacity due to unusually heavy rains, according to the state government.
About 15 percent of Borno state’s capital, Maiduguri, was under water, Nahum Daso, a spokesman for the state’s police, told The Associated Press. The death toll from the flooding has not yet been released.
At the Borno State Museum Park, the flooding killed about 80 percent of the animals, while an unspecified number of reptiles escaped, zoo general manager Ali Abatcha Don Best said.
“Some deadly animals have been dragged into our communities, animals like crocodiles and snakes,” the zoo manager said.
Local authorities have issued a flood alert and an immediate evacuation order for residents near the river banks, said Usman Tar, Borno’s commissioner for information and internal security. All schools in the state will close for the next two weeks, he added.
The dam collapse is exacerbating a decade-long humanitarian crisis in Borno caused by the activities of Boko Haram insurgents. The insurgency, which has spread across borders around Lake Chad, has killed more than 35,000 people and displaced 2.6 million others in the northeastern region of the country.
Boko Haram, with an offshoot allied to the Islamic State group, wants to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, the West African oil giant with 170 million people divided almost evenly between a mainly Christian south and a predominantly Muslim north.
Earlier this year, at least 18 people were killed by suicide bombers in a coordinated attack on a wedding, a funeral and a hospital in Borno.
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