By Chioma Umeha
The United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has again raised the alarm over
the plight of 6.9 million internally displaced persons in the North East
Nigeria and called for more aids for them.
The UN body in its report for October
pointed out that humanitarian crisis in north-east Nigeria remains severe due
to renewed conflicts, continued internal displacement and the unpredictable
return of refugees from neighbouring countries.
According to UNOCHA in October alone, about 4,000
Nigerian refugees returned from Neighborhood Niger Republic with new arrivals
recorded in Gwoza (1,749), Kukawa (498), Ngala (374) and Dikwa (250).
Subsequently, humanitarian organisations
mobilised to immediately provide shelter and non-food items to the
newly-arrived, with support from the rapid response mechanism in some
locations.
From the report, more suicide bombings and
attacks on civilians have continue to be a major source of concern.
In October alone the
report showed at least there were seven person-borne explosive device attacks
in Borno State.
The most significant
incident happened on October 22, when a coordinated attack by two suicide
bombers in the outskirts of Maiduguri killed about 20 civilians and injured a
dozen others.
Attacks equally continued
In rural areas where about 25 incidents were reported in the southern and
eastern parts of Borno State: various villages were looted and/or set ablaze,
and at least 20 women were abducted again in the Chibok and Damboa local
government areas (LGAs).
Nevertheless,
humanitarian operations were reportedly continuing with the containment of the
cholera outbreak in Maiduguri, Monguno, Dikwa and Mafa with the combined
efforts of local government and various sectors, in particular Health and
Water, Sanitation
In addition, with the
start of the dry season, humanitarian organisations have regained access to
locations that had been inaccessible due to flooding for several months, in
particular Ngala and Rann.
The dry season has also
allowed the work on “deep field” humanitarian hubs to accelerate and, to date,
five out of the nine planned hubs are complete and the remaining four are
expected to be fully operational by early 2018.
The hubs offer secure
accommodation and internet connectivity for aid workers and are instrumental in
supporting effective last-mile aid delivery and enhancing local coordination
notes the report.
As the year draws to a
close and in preparation of2018 planning and programming, part of the month of
October was dedicated by sectors and humanitarian partners to carrying out
in-depth joint needs assessments.
The findings are to feed
into the Humanitarian Needs Overview and the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan,
both of which are to be finalised by mid-December.
Some of the released
preliminary results point to an improvement in agricultural production in the
north-east (in particular for maize, millet and rice) and up to 10 per cent
increase of the land under cultivation compared to 2016. However, while this
will most likely translate into progress in the food security situation in the
north-east throughout 2018, many areas remain inaccessible to farmers and
pastoralists and humanitarian assistance will still be required for many the
report concludes.
