Photo by afp/getty images
A Multinational Joint Task Force boat carries people to safety after floods devastated Maiduguri, Nigeria, in September 2024. Nigeria was not the only country where the military responded to destructive floods in 2024. The Kenya Defence Forces deployed in April to rescue those affected by heavy rains. About 300 Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces Soldiers helped search for and evacuate people in the Bulambuli district after a landslide killed at least 28 people in November. Record amounts of rain fell in 27 African countries during the year, killing 2,500 people, displacing 4 million, inundating cropland and killing hundreds of thousands of livestock, according to an Africa Center for Strategic Studies report. Ten million children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Niger and Nigeria could not attend schools that flooded or were used for temporary housing. Flooding can lead to profound security concerns as critical infrastructure is damaged or destroyed, water- and vector-borne diseases such as cholera and malaria increase, and displaced people disrupt other communities. The flooding underscores the need for disaster response capabilities in African militaries.