Aid slowly reaches Nigerian flood victims

Along a highway engulfed by dark waters, Nigeria residents load dozens of boats full of food to bring assistance to the victims of the country's worst floods in a decade.

Aid is slowly coming to southern Nigeria after the biggest floods since 2012 killed more than 600 people and affected nearly three million others, according to official figures.

Many have fled their homes, including to overcrowded displacement camps. The others, completely cut off from the world, remain in communities swallowed by the waters.

Efforts now focus on passing the damaged and partly impassable highway linking Rivers and Bayelsa states -- among the two most devastated regions.

Near the town of Ahoada, volunteers and NGOs are doing vital work until official aid slowly reaches the most destitute.

Rivers State authorities have allocated one billion naira ($2.3 million) to help victims, especially around Ahouda, one of the worst hit.

The United States said it has donated $1 million in humanitarian aid.

Rescue officials said they have started delivering 12,000 tonnes of food across the country after the aid was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.

But on the ground, few have seen the results of these efforts so far.

Supplying food is almost impossible, hampered by strong currents or waters that are strewn with obstacles or choked with vegetation, and aid coordination is hindered by lack of mobile coverage in remote areas.