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

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) collect their belongings at the Bakassi IDPs Camp in Maiduguri on November 30, 2021 as IDPs in Maiduguri have vacated their camps ahead of today, dateline for the closure of all Displaced Persons camps by the Borno Government. - Some of the IDPs from Gwoza, Monguno and Guzamala Local Government Areas facilitate their home return. The state’s Commissioner for Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, said the development was part of government commitment to close all IDP camps in Maiduguri in line with its resettlement programme. (Photo by Audu MARTE / AFP)

United Nations. Photo/facebook/unitednations
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.

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