Day sandstorm hit Maiduguri

Residents of the city and students of the University of Maiduguri said that though sandstorms were common in Maiduguri, especially before the onset of the rainy season, it has been a long time since the city experienced this kind of severe sandstorm.
Students recounted that it was a sweltering afternoon at the University of Maiduguri while they prepared for examinations under intense heat which made reading almost unbearable.
Sand or dust storms are a weather phenomenon represented by a confluence of dust particles carried by turbulent and strong wind to higher altitude, severely deteriorating the horizontal visibility in terms of meteorology, said Saudi Gazette.
Traders at the campus market, popularly called ‘commercial,’ battled to salvage their kiosks and makeshift structures crumbling under the fierce storm.
The storm, which was accompanied by violent whirlwinds, also affected the new structure accommodating the Faculty of Education and some parts of students’ halls of residence.
The storm destroyed many houses and trees across Maiduguri metropolis with the popular Monday Market also badly affected.
A final year student of the Department of Sociology at the University of Maiduguri, Bilar Luka, said for about 30 minutes that the storm lasted, “Maiduguri turned into night in the afternoon.”
He said that the storm was characterised with strong wind that carried clouds of sand which reduced visibility, and forced motorists to turn on their vehicle headlamps, adding that some vehicles were badly damaged as branches of trees brought down by the storm hit them.
A Mass Communication student, Sade Babalola, said she thought it was going to rain in the town after the scorching sun of the day,  only to witness the sandstorm.
A recharge voucher dealer on the university’s campus market, Ezekiel, said he left his shop when it became clear that the kiosks would be affected by the dust-laden whirlwind that accompanied the storm.
Like most students, Ezekiel had initially mistaken the cloud of dust in the sky for rain cloud until he saw a vortex of brown dust making its way towards his direction which brought down branches of neem trees that formed part of the trees lining the walk path.
It should be stated, however, that sandstorm, characterised with parching dust-laden land-wind which blows South-west from the Sahara desert into the Gulf of Guinea, normally heralds rain in Maiduguri in the months of May and June.
A resident of Maiduguri, Yagaji Usman, who is asthmatic, said she had an attack which lasted for two days after the storm.
“I hate it. The dust from the storm triggers my asthma attacks,” she said.
A Maiduguri-based pharmacist, Arhyel Adamu, said that sandstorms affect the eye and breathing tracts, adding that people contract conjunctivitis from the storm.
The eye infection, usually caused by the exposure of the eyes to parched dust in the wind, is commonly called ‘apollo’ in Maiduguri.
Drought, deforestation and desertification are considered the leading causes of sandstorm which has become a regular phenomenon in Borno State and the North-east region, in general, due to nearness to the Sahara desert and its encroachment towards Nigeria.
World Health Organisation (WHO) says average concentrations of PM2.5 should be no more than 25 microgrammes per cubic metre. Air is unhealthy above 100 microgrammes and at 300, all children and elderly people should remain indoors.