Boko Haram crisis displaces 250,000 Nigerians in three months

The Head of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNOCHA, said the organisation would spend 75 million dollars on humanitarian assistance in Nigeria.

The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, on Tuesday said that three million people were affected and a quarter of a million displaced by insurgency in the North-East between January and March.

The NEMA Director-General, Mohammad Sani-Sidi, made this known at the 7th National Humanitarian Coordination meeting organised by NEMA for donor agencies in the country in Abuja.

The Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for several attacks in the North East, particularly Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa, that has killed thousands of people since 2009. The attacks worsened in 2014 despite a state of emergency in those three states.

Mr. Sani-Sidi said NEMA in collaboration with the Red Cross and State Emergency Management Agencies in affected states, carried out a comprehensive multi-sector rapid assessment of humanitarian situation in the areas.

Represented by Zanna Mohammad, NEMA’s Director of Administration, Mr. Sani-Sidi said the assessment was carried out between March 3 and March 7.

“The assessment report findings revealed that from January to March alone, insurgency and other humanitarian challenges have affected more than three million people.

“The insurgency left scores dead and displaced more than 249,446 people who are in camps or living with host communities,” he said.

He said the meeting was to review the humanitarian situation in states affected by the state of emergency.

The director-general said the meeting was to explore avenues for further response by national and international humanitarian actors.

He said although NEMA had intervened through the provision of food and non-food items, water and medicaments, the needs of the affected population are on the increase. He solicited the support of all donor agencies in alleviating the sufferings of those affected.

“Let me use this opportunity to call on all actors local and international to share with NEMA their plans and intention for providing support to Nigerians in distress.

“This is desirable to avoid duplication of efforts, confusion and inefficiency,” he said.

Some representative of donor agencies at the meeting commended efforts being made by NEMA to provide figures on the humanitarian situation in the North-East.

The Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNOCHA, Choice Okoro, in Nigeria, said the organisation would spend 75 million dollars on humanitarian assistance in Nigeria.

She said 75 per cent of the amount would be used for humanitarian intervention in the North- East.

Ms. Okoro commended NEMA’s openness in providing information on humanitarian situations in states affected by the insurgency.

A representative of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Soji Adeniyi, called for the sustenance of the periodic information on humanitarian situation in the affected states by NEMA.

“What is happening in the North-East is unprecedented; we have never had this kind of displacement caused by conflicts before in the country,” Mr. Adeniyi said.

(NAN)