(27 Sep 2010) SHOTLIST
Gudinchin village
1. Man using large ball to float on as he paddles towards small boat in flooded farm field
2. Men in small boats in flooded fields
Hadejia
3. Moving shot along flooded farm fields
4. Flooded field of sorghum
5. Carcass of dead goat floating in flooded field
6. Woman in hijab staring at floodwaters
STORYLINE
About two (M) million people in Nigeria's Jigawa state have been displaced or affected by flooding that began two weeks ago, officials have said.
Flood waters that rushed through the rural state now cover about 34 square miles (55 square kilometres) of farmland there - the latest strain on food in a region where other nearby countries face serious shortages.
The floods have come at the worst possible time - just before harvest - when it is too late for farmers to replant their fields of millet, sorghum and cowpea, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
Unusually heavy seasonal rains sent water surging through overflowing rivers in northern Nigeria.
A dam failed in the state of Sokoto, flooding out rural pasturelands there and killing about 40 people, according to local media reports.
In Jigawa state, local officials blame the inundation on officials opening two dams at reservoirs in neighbouring Kano state.
Typically, the water released yearly from the dams flows into farm fields across the region known as the Sahel, a band of semi-arid land stretching across Africa south of the Sahara.
The waters irrigate the crops of Jigawa, a state home to more than four (M) million people.
But this time, a huge wave of water from the reservoirs raced through already saturated stream and creeks beds, quickly topping over the state's simple earthen levees, according to a spokesman for the Jigawa governor.
The village of Gudinchin is home to a few hundred people and is normally surrounded by fields of tomatoes, corn, rice and millet.
Now it is cut off from the rest of Jigawa, an island in the midst of murky, fast-moving water ripe with unprocessed sewage.
Besides swimming, the only way across comes from two, low-riding wooden canoes donated by the government.
The village's granary quickly became a pile of muddy debris when the waters rushed in one night, drowning nearly all crops.
Villagers used its walls to build an earthen levee against the rushing the water but live in fear that their dam will not hold long enough to allow the sun to burn away the remaining water.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, relies on the crop from its northern states to feed the mouths of those in its oil-rich and commerce-driven south.
The governor's spokesman warned the loss of crops would drive up food prices in the country, where most earn less than one US dollar a day.
He also estimated state ranchers lost (M) millions of dollars worth of cattle in the flooding.
The nation's farmers also supply other West African nations with their crops, countries already facing droughts and food shortages.
In neighbouring Niger, international aid experts warn the country faces the worst hunger crisis in its history following a prolonged drought and poor growing season last year.
One of the poorest countries in Africa, Niger now has more than seven (M) million people - almost 50 percent of the population - suffering from a lack of food, officials say.
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