ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A dam collapsed Tuesday in northeastern Nigeria, triggering severe flooding that forced people to evacuate and sent deadly reptiles from a zoo into nearby communities, local officials and a zoo manager said.
The collapse of the Alau Dam in Borno State caused one of the worst floods in the state since the same dam collapsed 30 years ago, forcing many residents to flee their homes. The dam was at full capacity due to unusually heavy rainfall, the state government said.
About 15% of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, was under water, state police spokesman Nahum Daso told The Associated Press. No death toll from the flooding has been released.
At the Borno State Museum Park, about 80% of the animals died in the flooding, while an unknown number of reptiles escaped, said Ali Abatcha Don Best, the zoo’s general director.
“Some deadly animals have been washed away into our communities, animals like crocodiles and snakes,” the zoo manager said.
Local authorities have issued a flood warning and an immediate evacuation order for residents close to riverbanks, said Usman Tar, Borno’s information and internal security commissioner. All schools in the state will be closed for the next two weeks, he added.
The dam collapse adds to a humanitarian crisis in Borno over the past decade due to the activities of Boko Haram rebels. The insurgency, which has spread across the borders around Lake Chad, has killed more than 35,000 people and displaced 2.6 million others in the country’s northeastern region.
Boko Haramone branch of which is affiliated with the Islamic State, wants to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, the West African oil giant with 170 million inhabitants, which is almost equally divided into a predominantly Christian south and a predominantly Muslim north.
Earlier this year, at least 18 people were killed by suicide bombers in a coordinated attack targeting a wedding, a funeral and a hospital in Borno.
