Boko Haram: Nigeria gets N580 million UN funding for humanitarian services

The United Nations on Tuesday announced the provision of about N580 million in aid of the humanitarian operations in the Boko Haram infested North-East of Nigeria.

The Head of the UN Central Emergency Response Fund, CERF, Valerie Amos, said the provision of $3.5 million (about N580 million) was based on the recent assessment by the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA.

NEMA, the Nigerian agency responsible for the management of emergency situations as a result of disater, had reported that more than 740,000 people have been displaced by violence between Boko Haram insurgents and security forces in Nigeria since January 2014.

The agency said majority of the people affected have sought refuge within host communities where they face increasingly squalid health and poor sanitation conditions.

“The Humanitarian Country Team prioritized CERF funds to respond to protection, health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) needs of the displaced people and host communities of North East Nigeria,” the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Daouda Toure, said.

Mr. Troure said the interventions would be implemented in Yobe and Borno States, which are currently bearing the brunt of the conflict in the region.

The CERF funds, Mr. Troure said, would cover components of the Nigeria Strategic Response Plan (SRP) for 2014 that have not attracted adequate funding, including $808,893 for health, $1.3 Million for WASH and $1,437,815 for protection.

Of the $93.4 million requested through the Nigeria SRP, only 13 per cent has been received so far.

“This grant is part of a $75 million allocation from the second of two annual rounds of allocations from the CERF Underfunded Emergencies window which this year aimed to boost relief work in two of the world’s most neglected regions: the West African Sahel and the Horn of Africa,” the head of the UN agency said.

This latest allocation, he said, brings total CERF funding for Nigeria in 2014 to $5 million. In September, CERF helped aid agencies in Nigeria responded to the Ebola crisis with $1.5 million support.

The CERF pools donor contribution in a single fund so that money was available to start or continue urgent relief work.

Since 2006, CERF has allocated more than $14.7 million to Nigeria as part of the response to various crises. These resources have helped save lives and strengthen the response capacity of the humanitarian community.