Zabzugu MP declares state of emergency after violent rainstorm

The Member of Parliament for Zabzugu Alhassan Umar has declared a state of emergency in the area as thousands there are without shelter after a steady rainstorm pounded their villages and caused massive destruction.

The MP therefore wants district assembly authorities to force the central government to intervene in providing relief items to dozens of residents who have not received any aid package from the regional secretariat of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), after a Thursday evening torrential downpour ruined their homes at Golanyili, Kugani, Nakpali and several other hard to reach communities.

The MP said reports from the villages indicated that “two communities have been turned upside down”.

Nearly 2,000 victims were forced from their homes to stuff in tiny rooms of family and friends and others sleeping under trees and in partially wrecked structures.

Dozens of houses have been brought down completely by the storm with many roofings and trees uprooted, leaving the villagers in desperate conditions.

Umar said it was worrying that the victims were still perching around in very precarious structures without any form of assistance from both district and regional disaster management body.

According to the MP, any further delay in helping the victims could deteriorate their situation as the region braced for more and more downpour in the coming days.

He therefore wants the District Chief Executive to declare a state of emergency to draw attention of the central administration of the disaster management organization for urgent responds.

District authorities have visited the communities and collected data, Umar told Starr News, but the people were still sleeping in miserable structures with their properties too endangered.

“My appeal to the DA and DCE is to fasten up because the rains would set in very soon. This is March, by April we should start experiencing it…so whatever they are doing they should hasten up and come to the aid of the victims to ensure that these victims have some roof over their heads before the rain comes”, the MP appealed.

Storm incidents are common in the Zabzugu district, which is about 30km to the northern border with Togo, with millions of properties lost seasonally.