11m people need humanitarian assistance in North-East, says UN

The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) has said that 10.6 million people need humanitarian assistance as hunger looms among children and mothers in North-East.

The 12-year conflict has killed over 40,000 people with destruction of property worth $9.2 billion (N3.42 trillion) in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.

UN-OCHA raised the alarm in a snapshot released yesterday in Maiduguri, Borno State, saying: “About 2.8 million people were displaced from communities during the over decade Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad region and Sambisa Forest.

“Besides displacement of persons, the snapshot lamented that 400, 000 children are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps and host-communities.

“The ban on the distribution of food and non-food items in resettled communities by the Borno State Government could trigger hunger among IDPs.”

Some of the 7,911 IDP returnees; are also gripped with fears to return to their ancestral homes in Abadam, Monguno, Marte and Guzamala local councils.

The returnees, comprising 70 per cent of women and children, lamented that they could not travel a kilometre from the council headquarters.

“Our wives and children cannot fetch or draw firewood and potable water since we were relocated from Bakassi camp to Gwoza Local Council Headquarters,” said Buba, while lamenting insecurity in communities, including Ashgashiya, Kirawa, Agapalawa, Attagara, Uvaha and Khuhum, a border settlement with Cameroon.