Kogi State: International organisation distributes relief items to flood victims

An international organisation, the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), has distributed relief and recovery items to 1,100 households affected by the 2024 flood disaster in Kogi state.

The items were provided by ECHO through the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies (IFRC) under its intervention project.

Abdullahi Abubakar, Acting Secretary, Kogi State branch of the Nigeria Red Cross, disclosed this when his team visited the flood-affected Edegaki Community in Kogi Local Government Area.

Abubakar said the IFRC had implemented a series of humanitarian interventions under the ECHO project, adding that the visit was to get feedback from beneficiaries on how they utilized the items earlier distributed to them.

Abubakar noted that ECHO, through its intervention project, had provided relief and recovery supports to thousands of flood-affected households in Kogi, Delta, and Anambra States.

He said that 1100 households across three most affected local government areas, including Idah, Kogi, and Lokoja local government areas, have benefitted from the project across Kogi State.

According to Abubakar, the relief items distributed included 20-litre jerrycans, buckets, Aqua tabs, and ATM preloaded cards with N77,000 for each benefiting household.

“Three communities, including Alla-Ogane, Alla-Atenoguma, and Alla-Ichala, comprising 300 households, were covered in Idah, while four communities, including Galilee, Sarkin Noma, Edo, and Kampe, with 400 households, benefitted from Lokoja.

“In Kogi Local Government, four communities of Ogbangede, Irenodu, Onumaye/Edimose, and Edegaki, with 400 households, benefitted from the initiative.

“The beneficiaries were selected based on criteria such as aged 60 and above, sick persons, people with disabilities, and pregnant mothers.

”While communities most affected by the flood from each of the three LGAs were selected as well,” he said.

Responding on behalf of the Edegaki community, assistant community leader Alh. Ahmed Ibrahim thanked the ECHO and the Nigeria Red Cross and partners for providing the items to mitigate the devastating flood effects on their livelihoods.

Ibrahim said the community was always affected by floods, saying though not everyone would receive the items at a time, they had made it a point of duty to share the items among themselves.

“Whenever there is a flood, this entire community will be overrun by the flood, right from the time we always had promises from other NGOs that they were coming to intervene.

”Sometimes they will come for registration and even ask for tips before we can get registered, and at the end of the day, nothing happened.

“We appreciate Nigeria Red Cross Society and other partners who made it a point of duty to distribute these items to us and also train us on how to use them.

”The gesture had enabled them to pay their children’s school fees, repair their houses after the flood, buy food to eat, as well as drink clean water,” Ibrahim said.

NAN / Foluke Ibitomi