Niger Delta women have called on the federal government to putin place immediate measures to address the flooding which has consistently ravaged the country with crippling impacts on both livelihood and infrastructure in the region.
Presenting the Niger Delta demand at the recent African Women Assembly tagged, ‘African Women Unite on the Frontline of Climate Crisis’, Dr. Patience Osaro-Ejiji stated that Niger Delta women are tired of facing unending disaster emanating from flooding which fall-out, forces them into a cycle of poverty.
The women called on the federal government to end the pains faced by internally displaced persons who suffer the danger of losing their lives, properties and livelihood each year, by tidying up its engagement with Cameroon, completing an age-long dam designed to mellow the impact of the Lagdo Dam that has destroyed so much in the country and dredge the Rivers Niger and Benue to create room for absorbing more water volume.
They condemned the long neglect of mitigation measures by the federal government which is responsible for the devastating impact of the flood this tear and called for support for the flood victims.
The 2022 flood has claimed almost 700 lives, submerged most of the Niger Delta and destroyed key infrastructure in the region..
They also called for an end to gas flaring and stoppage of extraction on new fossil fuel sites as well as thorough and speedy clean-up of oil polluted sites in the country.
Their demands also received support from women from 11 other natural resource countries including, Mali, Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Senegal, Mozambique, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Liberiawho were part of the Assembly and had visited oil polluted and flood sites.
The African Women Assembly sent a strong message to the ongoing Climate Change Assembly, COP 27 holding in Egypt, to “Stop Thieving Africa’s Resources”.
The gathering of over 150 women representing community women and activists held October 17-20 at Igwuruta, Port Harcourt, Rivers State and was organized by Womin African Alliance and Kebetkache Women Development Resource Center.
