No fewer than 36 people have been killed with 470 others displaced from their homes following floods  caused by torrential downpour in various parts of Sokoto State  between  January to date.

Director, Relief and Orientation of Sokoto State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA),Mr Mustapha Umar, disclosed this at a stakeholders meeting on disaster management, yesterday, in Sokoto.

The meeting was organised by National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

Umar said about 302, 500 hectares of farmlands were submerged and 120 animals killed due to flooding experienced across the state.

He said 19 of 23 local government areas in Sokoto were affected by the devastating flood since the start of the rains this year.

Also, NEMA Head of Sokoto Field Office, Dr Kofoworola Soleye, who represented Director General, AVM Muhammadu Muhammed (Retd) said the meeting was aimed at brainstorming with relevant stakeholders on disaster management and to fashion out modes of response.

Muhammed said that the officials would also review measures that were responsible for the level of successes recorded in past years.

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According to him, participants were expected to assist in identifying loopholes and lapses noticed in the process of disaster management in the current year in the state.

“The effort is to maintain and strengthen the existing synergy between NEMA and other critical stakeholders in disaster management amid COVID-19 which has impacted untold hardship globally.

“The programme is expected to come up with vital suggestions, workable policies and strategies that will enhance mitigation, preparedness and response, to the menace of all kinds disasters like pandemics.

“Other associated disasters included windstorm, flood, drought, desertification, fire outbreaks, which has threatened economic activities and security challenges as a result of armed banditry which have become a recurring decimal in some major part of the country,” he said.

Muhammed said that disaster management needed coordination and integration of all activities.

He described partnership as a key necessary to build, sustain and improve the capacity to prepare for protection and response to natural or human-induced disasters.

“It is vital that the federal, state and local governments, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOS), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the private sector discharge their respective roles and responsibilities and complement each other in achieving desired goals of disaster management, ” Muhammed said.