Man Buried in Mud, Baby Swept Away, 10 Perish as Floods Unleash Horror in Calabar
No fewer than 10 persons have lost their lives following weeks of torrential rainfall that triggered devastating floods and landslides across Calabar, the Cross River State capital, leaving behind widespread destruction, displaced families and property worth hundreds of millions of naira destroyed.
The relentless downpours, which began in the first week of July, have inundated large parts of the city, forcing residents indoors as roads became impassable and several communities submerged. Schools have been disrupted, commercial activities crippled, while nightlife has virtually ground to a halt due to the persistent flooding.
The rains have inflicted severe hardship on residents, with landslides and floodwaters claiming lives across different parts of the city. At Ikot Anwatim, five persons died after buildings collapsed into a gully.
Four siblings lost their lives in the tragedy, while a father was buried alive as he tried to rescue his children from the advancing mud. Elsewhere, a man drowned along Elijah Henshaw Street, a one-year-old child was swept away by floodwaters at Webber Street, while two children died at Otop Abasi. In Boropit, near Idim Otop, two girls were also killed after a landslide buried their home.
The latest disaster occurred at Diamond Hill, beside the former Unicem headquarters, where several houses were swept into the adjoining sea, leaving behind a massive gully and destroying sections of the road leading to the Nigerian Naval Base and Calabar Jetty.
Conservation experts have blamed the worsening floods and landslides on extensive deforestation across Cross River State. The Conservator General of the Nigeria National Park Service, Dr. Ibrahim Goni, recently disclosed that about 14,000 hectares of the state’s tropical rainforest were destroyed in 2025 through illegal logging, mining and uncontrolled farming. He warned that continued destruction of the forest is accelerating climate change and increasing the frequency of devastating floods.
Concerned by the scale of the destruction, the Cross River State Government has appealed to the Federal Government for urgent intervention to avert what it described as an impending ecological disaster. During an inspection of the Diamond Hill landslide, Deputy Governor Dr. Peter Odey said the magnitude of the disaster had exceeded the state’s capacity and called for immediate deployment of federal technical expertise and ecological resources.
Odey said the government had directed the Commissioner for Works to immediately mobilise to the affected site, while officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) had already visited the area. He stressed that close collaboration between the state and the Federal Government would be essential in addressing the crisis.
The deputy governor warned that without urgent intervention, Calabar could face more severe mudslides and flooding capable of threatening critical infrastructure, including access roads to federal establishments such as the Nigerian Navy.
He assured residents that the Governor Bassey Otu-led administration would continue to respond swiftly to affected communities while pursuing lasting solutions to the environmental challenges confronting the state.