“Forty percent of our city is underwater,” says bishop in Nigeria 

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The Nigerian city of Maiduguri was recently hit by terrible flooding. Aid to the Church in Need is helping the local diocese with food, sanitation, medicine, and shelter.  

The Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Maiduguri, in Nigeria, has issued an appeal for help in the wake of devastating floods affecting his city. 

In a video message sent to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Auxiliary Bishop John Bakeni requests aid, explaining that “the city of Maiduguri has been engulfed by a devastating flood, and over forty percent of the city is underwater.”  

“We are reaching out to our friends at Aid to the Church in Need for your prayers, especially at this difficult and challenging time,” the auxiliary bishop adds. The video was taken outside the cathedral of St. Patrick, which is also largely underwater. 

Maiduguri is a major city in northern Nigeria, and for many years, was the diocese worst affected by the insurgency of Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram. Christians are a minority in the diocese. 

Bishop John says that at least one million people are suffering from the effects of the flood. “In the city, over a million people have been affected, and over 200,000 families have been displaced. We are still carrying out our assessment, but three or four parishes of ours have been affected, and over 20,000 parishioners have been as well.” Most of them now livein host communities.  

The flood in Maiduguri is believed to be the result of damage to the Alau Dam, located a few miles from the city. ACN is committed to helping the embattled diocese, specifically through the provision of food, medicine, sanitation and shelter.  

At the same time, Bishop John explains, heavy rain in the south of the diocese have also caused floods, which have affected, in particular, St. Pious IX Parish in Shuwa, about eighty miles from Maiduguri, with parishioners there also needing assistance. 

Bishop John is reaching out for help from ACN donors: “We are praying that God will give us the grace to live through these challenging times. God bless you.”