ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Elizabeth Felix stands in the middle of Maiduguri’s main market, taking in the bustling scene: traders setting up stalls, customers haggling over prices, the bright colors of stacked fabric and shoes, fresh produce blending with the rich aroma of dried fish.
It’s a stark difference from just six months ago when the market had drowned under floodwater. Torrential rains swept across Central and West Africa, causing devastating flooding, among the harshest climate change effects the region has seen in decades.
“It was the worst moment of my life,” the 43-year-old fish trader said. Her shop was submerged, and 2 million naira ($1,332) worth of goods were swept away. “I lost everything,” she said.
Maiduguri, the capital of the fragile northern Nigerian state of Borno — which has been at the center of an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2009 — was one of the hardest hit areas. Dozens of lives were lost, hundreds of thousands were displaced, markets were destroyed, roads cracked, and the city’s Sanda Kyarimi zoo lost nearly 80% of its animals.
The flood, triggered by weeks of relentless rainfall and the collapse of a nearby dam, brought about 15% of the city under water, swallowing entire neighborhoods and sharply worsening existing insurgency-induced humanitarian conditions.
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