Hauwa standing by what is left of her home, February 2025 ©FAO/Kelvin Nwachukwu

Zainab Tijjani, 28, and Hauwa Yahaya, 27, both residents of the Shokari community in Maiduguri, share a common struggle - surviving the harsh realities of climate-induced disasters. As mothers, Zainab with five children and Hauwa with four, they work hard to support their families. Zainab ran a small poultry farm from her home, while Hauwa worked as a seamstress. Their husbands are both traders at the local market. However, in September 2024, their lives were upended by devastating floods that swept through their community, washing away their home along with their belongings and forcing them into an internally displaced people (IDP) camp in Maiduguri.

“I woke up after midnight to loud screams in the neighbourhood,” Zainab recalls. “We barely managed to move some of our belongings on to the roof in our house. It took two days before the military boats arrived to evacuate us to the IDP camp. I lost my business - 30 chickens drowned in the water.”

For Hauwa, the journey to safety was just as harrowing. “We spent four days searching for shelter before we finally found our way to the IDP camp. We lost everything - our clothes, food supplies and our home. Even now, you can see the walls are cracked, and some rooms have collapsed due to the force of the flood.”

Across Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, the flooding was particularly severe, affecting nearly 880 000 people and destroying close to 300 000 hectares of farmland, vast areas of grazing land and numerous domestic fishponds. The situation was worsened by the collapse of the Alau dam in Konduga local government area (LGA), which severely impacted Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) and Jere LGA, displacing over 239 000 people. An estimated 50 percent of Maiduguri was submerged, cutting off access to essential services such as hospitals, schools, worship centres and markets. Bridges and key infrastructure were damaged, compounding the humanitarian crisis. By December 2024, FAO estimated that floods had affected 973 715 hectares of cropland nationwide, including over 60 380 hectares in Borno State alone. The widespread displacement and destruction heightened the risk of disease outbreaks, making urgent intervention critical.

In response, FAO implemented its project, entitled “Life-saving emergency food security and livelihood support in response to Nigeria flooding,” thanks to funding from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), partnering with the Borno State Flood Relief Disbursement Committee, Borno State Primary Health Care Development Board, the National Emergency Management Agency and the State Emergency Management Agency to provide essential assistance to flood-affected communities in four LGAs in Borno - Konduga, Jere, Mafa and MMC.

The initiative prioritized vulnerable groups, particularly pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under five suffering from acute malnutrition, to prevent relapse and reduce child wasting. Overall, between October and December 2024, FAO provided 4 680 households with 56 tonnes of Tom Brown from various donors.

Thanks to CERF funding, FAO provided 2 850 households with 12 packs of Tom Brown. To ensure beneficiaries have safe access to cooking, FAO complemented this intervention through other funding streams by providing Safe Access to Fuel and Energy kits. These kits included one fuel-efficient stove and 28 kg of briquettes per household to 1 250 households.

Hauwa and Zainab were among the many flood survivors who received FAO’s support.

“We lost everything overnight. With no home and no food, I feared for my children,” Zainab recalls. “FAO’s stove and briquettes were a lifesaver in preparing meals because we struggled to find cooking fuel. My youngest baby is two years old, and his health improved when we started feeding him Tom Brown - it lasted us three weeks.”

Hauwa expresses her gratitude: “I am thankful for the food and cooking resources. With the loss of our livestock, we were left with nothing. Without this support, feeding our children would have been even harder.” She adds, “The Tom Brown has helped us provide healthier meals for our young children, and the stoves make cooking safer as we return home.”

Tom Brown is a nutrient-dense product made from locally available ingredients, proven to reduce malnutrition and prevent relapse by up to 35 percent among children discharged from UNICEF outpatient therapeutic programme centres and World Food Programme targeted supplementary feeding programme at supported nutrition centers. FAO has enhanced it with fish powder, creating Tom Brown+, which is processed in FAO-supported centres run by conflict-affected women fish processors from Lake Chad in Borno. These centres play a crucial role in addressing acute malnutrition while strengthening community capacity to produce nutrient-dense food. This approach not only provides emergency nutrition support but also empowers local women economically.

FAO remains committed to strengthening resilience among vulnerable communities affected by climate shocks and conflict. FAO’s approach integrates emergency relief with long-term solutions. This ensures that communities like Zainab’s and Hauwa’s not only receive immediate assistance but also acquire the necessary skills and resources for sustainable recovery. As climate-related disasters become more frequent, FAO’s interventions demonstrate its commitment to helping communities rebuild their lives, enhance food security, and build resilience against climate change.