Over 300 Lives Have Been Lost To Disasters This Year – NEMA DG

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said over 300 lives have been lost to disasters in various parts of the country in 2022 alone.

Director general of NEMA, Mustapha Habib Ahmed, who disclosed this in Abuja yesterday, during a one-day strategic workshop with disaster risk management stakeholders, said the agency is recording the worst disasters in the country this year.

Ahmed said NEMA receives more than 100 alerts on disasters from different communities of the country in a day, adding that the situation is worse than previous years.

“This year, we are getting the worst disasters in parts of the country. In fact, we receive more than 100 alerts on disasters from different communities of the country in a day. The situation is so bad and we pray that it doesn’t get worse than the previous years. And the number of disasters is going up and communities are seriously being affected. I don’t have the actual figures, but I know that over 300 lives have so far been lost to disasters in parts of the country this year alone.”

He therefore called on local and state governments in the country to set up local emergency management committee to mitigate the situation, because NEMA cannot be in every community in Nigeria.

The director general explained that the workshop would provide opportunity for brainstorming and in-depth discourse with a view to further deepening the perspective of disaster risk reduction and management in Nigeria, in line with international best practices and trend.