Feature Stories

Flash flooding has created a humanitarian emergency in areas of north-eastern Nigeria already complicated by insurgency, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and a fragile health system. Now rising is the threat of water-related diseases, such as cholera and acute watery diarrhoea, which are easily spread through contaminated floodwater.

A wooden boat sways idyllically in a marsh of the Malagarasi River where it begins from an eastern mouth of the great Lake Tanganyika, Africa’s deepest lake and the world’s longest lake. Along the river, muscled men pull loaded bicycles under the scorching sun. This port in Ilagala village in Kigoma Region idles in daytime and bustles with activity at night.