‘Over $3.2b spent on humanitarian services in N’East’

The United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, yesterday, said over $ 3.2 billion had been mobilised for humanitarian services in the North East from 2017 to 2020.

He made the disclosure in Abuja at an event to mark this year’s World Humanitarian Day with theme ‘Climate Change’ organised by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

The UN chief said the funds were deployed as life-saving assistance to over 5.5 million people yearly in the troubled region, lamenting that the crisis was a complex emergency and presents an intricate web of issues that required the collective collaboration of different actors in the search for an enduring solution.

He added that more than $1.01 billion was needed to salvage some 8.7 million people in the affected states, maintaining that the 1.4 million persons displaced in North West and over the one million dislocated in North Central needed urgently humanitarian assistance.

Disclosing that the ongoing conflict has continued to be the main driver of humanitarian needs in the North East Nigeria, Kallon regretted that humanitarian crisis in the states remained one of the biggest in the world today, adding that at the peak of the crisis in 2017, over 2.2 million people were displaced.

Kallon pointed out that the humanitarian community in Nigeria, including government, non-governmental organisations, civil society groups and the UN, have done well over the years to check famine and bring hope to millions of people affected by the conflict.

Also speaking, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender, Dr. Fatimata Dia, while lamenting that time was already running out for millions of the world’s most vulnerable people, expressed sadness that those who have contributed the least to global climate emergency were the most affected in the society.

Represented by ECOWAS Humanitarian Senior Officer, Alozie Amaechi, Dia stated: “The climate emergency is wreaking havoc across the world at a scale that the humanitarian community and people at the front lines cannot manage.”