The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) said in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital that 10.6 million people need humanitarian assistance in Nigeria’s Northeast region as a result of Boko Haram/Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorism.
The United Nations also said that the 12-year conflict has killed over 40, 000 people, destroying property worth $9.2 billion (N3.42 trillion) in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY) States.
The Nation UN-OCHA raised the alarm in a statement on Thursday, adding that “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 UN lamented that 400, 000 children are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) 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,” warned the OCHA.
The UN noted that 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 Government Areas.
Meanwhile, the returnees, comprising of 70 per cent of women and children, lamenting that they could not travel a kilometre from their Local Government Council headquarters.
“Our wives and children cannot fetch or draw firewood and potable water since we were relocated from Bakkasi camp to Gwoza council headquarters,” said Buba, adding that there are still insecurity in communities, including Ashgashiya, Kirawa, Agapalawa, Attagara, Uvaha and Khuhum, a border settlement with Cameroon.