Residents of Darazo town in Bauchi state were left stunned as a sudden onslaught of thick dust accompanied by wind swept through the area on Sunday, an event they described as unprecedented in the region.
Eyewitnesses recounted how the town was engulfed by thick clouds of red dust, creating a surreal and unsettling atmosphere with streets and buildings shrouded in dusty haze where visibility was reduced to mere meters.
“I’ve lived in Darazo all my life, and I’ve never witnessed anything like this before,” Abdurrahman Darazo, one of the residents shaken by the experience told WikkiTimes.
Despite the temporary disruption caused by the dust storm, residents expressed relief that no deaths or significant injuries were reported. But there are reports of inferno caused by the storm in some communities of the local government.
Experts in meteorology suggest that such phenomena are linked to climate change, largely resulting from human activities impacting the Earth’s surface.
Northern Nigeria, including Bauchi state, is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, with increasing desert encroachment, rising temperatures and changing weather patterns.
Changing weather patterns triggered by climate change had a direct negative effect on many key developmental sectors in the region.
For the past two decades, the desertification and the weather conditions prevalent in the region have significantly changed, thus becoming more extreme than what the locals in the areas used to experience.
Sunday’s raid serves as a reminder of the need for climate action and control measures in the state and the region at large neighbouring the Sahara desert.
The Bauchi State 2023 budget documents show that the state allocated N100,000,000 for the provision of Infrastructure Facilities Ecological Fund Across the State but spent only N37,605,000 during the period.
This medium had earlier reported that the state also budgeted the sum of N277 million on flooding and erosion control within the period but spent only the sum of N115 million.
