…As 8.5mn people now helpless in North East
450,000 children face severe malnutrition in Borno
The United Nations (UN) on Thursday in Abuja said it is planning to raise over $1 billion to carter for urgent humanitarian needs that currently confront millions of people who have suffered displacement from their homes on account of Islamist militant insurgency in northeastern Nigeria.
Edward Kallon, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, who disclosed this during a media breakfast meeting at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, also noted that the Nigerian government has become overwhelmed by the prolonged conflict, making it more difficult to help those affected to recover, rebuild and resettle.
“The Humanitarian Response Plan 2017 for Nigeria seeks more than US$ 1 billion to meet the needs of the 6.9 million people targeted,” said Kallon.
According to him, “an international conference on Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin is being organized in Oslo Norway next week, and we are hoping to raise more than this amount ($1bn) at the end of the conference in Oslo.”
He also feared that a repeat of the 2016 situation when UN humanitarian activities were severely hampered by funding shortfall, as only 53 per cent of projected funding was received, will expose vulnerable children, as well as women, girls and youths to risks Nigeria may lack the capacity to deal with in the future.
Kallon called the Oslo conference “a great opportunity for the international community to make meaningful commitments towards funding our humanitarian response activities,” stressing further that the conference also presents an opportunity for the government of Nigeria to tell the world the true extent of “this crisis.”
According to UN figures, over 50 per cent of displaced people in Nigeria’s north east region are children.
Already an economically deprived region with around 76 per cent of internally displaced persons (IDPs) staying with host communities, there is currently a huge strain on infrastructure and resources in northeastern Nigeria.
The UN estimates that, over the next 12 months, around 450,000 children will suffer from severe acute malnutrition in Borno State alone.
Despite this challenging scenario, some important achievements have been made by humanitarian organizations in the region.
For instance, food assistance grew from reaching 600,000 million people in August 2016 to 2.1 million people by December last year, a 350 per cent increase from the preceding year, according to UN figures.
Also, of the 900,000 people targeted last year (2016) for Non-Food Item (NFI) support and emergency shelter assistance, 82 per cent received NFI and 13 per cent shelter.
This is apart from around 160,000 children that were treated for severe acute malnutrition, 200,000 conflict-affected children that received education in a protective and safe learning environment, and 1.7 million people, who received protection services that surpassed the 1.6 million target.
As the humanitarian community scales up its interventions in the region, there are still some 8.5 million people in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, who need assistance, out of which 6.9 million who are most critically in need will be targeted by humanitarian partners.
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