On Tuesday 10 September 2024, Maiduguri city residents woke up to an unparalleled natural disaster: flooding that severely damaged over half of the city and resulted in the significant loss of lives. The five bridges that connect the city’s two sides overflowed, dividing it into two blocs that were unable to reach out to each other. Almost the entire lower portion of the city remained under water for over two weeks before the flood waters began to recede.

The Alau Dam – situated a few kilometres away from Maiduguri city – collapsed, leading to a flood that killed an estimated 77 people and displaced 300,000. As a city still recovering from the scourge of the Boko Haram insurgency, the flood has further compounded the economic and social challenges that city residents were already facing. The victims were faced with challenges of health care, infrastructural needs, mental health and psychosocial support needs, shelter and food.

In this podcast episode, Chris Jordan speaks to Babakura Bukar about the devastation caused by the floods, the factors contributing to the dam collapse and how such a disaster could be avoided in the future.

> Read more in ACRC’s Maiduguri city report

Babakura Bukar was ACRC's uptake lead for Maiduguri in the foundation phase of the programme.

Chris Jordan is communications and impact manager for the Global Development Institute at The University of Manchester, and ACRC's communications manager.

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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

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