Boko Haram: Humanitarian crisis in North East ‘terribly worse’-UN

UNITED Nations Assistant Secretary and Regional Hu­manitarian Coordinator for the Sahel Region, Mr. Toby Lanzer, has described the cri­sis in the North East states af­fected by Boko Haram insur­gency as “terribly worse” and has called on countries and donor agencies to lend their support towards rebuilding the area.

Lanzer, who visited Kon­duga and Bama in Borno, on Tuesday, said the UN has set aside $200 million for assistance to provide water and health faculties in dev­astated communities and for rehabilitation of the 2.5 mil­lion people displaced by the insurgency.

“The humanitarian conse­quence here is great and one of the worst in the world,” the UN official, who was visiting Borno State for the second time in eight months, stated.

Describing the impact of insurgency in the areas vis­ited as terrible, Lanzer said “villages have been wiped out, markets destroyed and lives completely wrecked. I think it is important that International communities stand with people of Borno and Nigeria government,” he said.

He promised that the UN would assist farmers “get better harvest and help stabi­lise.”

Governor Kashim Shet­tima, in his reaction, said it became expediendirected lo­cal government workers to return and provide health ser­vices to internally displaced persons (IDPs), threatening to withhold their salaries should they fail to return.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has reassured that it would meet the dead­line of October for fixing the United Nations building that was bombed by insurgents in 2013.

The assurance was given by Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, while receiv­ing a delegation of the UN’s Resident Coordinator and United Nations Develop­ment Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Nigeria, Ms Fatma Samoura, who paid him a courtesy visit in his office, yesterday .

Responding to their plight that 1,900 UN staff are pres­ently suffering office accom­modation inconveniences, Udoma said: “Our govern­ment is sorry about the pres­ent UN office accommoda­tion inconvenience. I shall effectively liaise with the Federal Capital Territory administration and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that the October 2016 re­building deadline of the Ni­geria’s UN building is met; all that is required for the staff to move into the build­ing will be addressed.”

In a related development, the Nigerian Army yesterday said its soldiers on internal security operations in the North East have so far res­cued 11,595, persons held captive by the Boko Ha­ram terrorists in the last one month.

Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Usman, who made this known in Abuja, said most of the abducted persons were rescued at various towns and villages that was hith­erto under the control of the terrorists from neighboring Cameroon.

He said 10,000 refugees, were received from the Re­public of Cameroon at Banki and Bama, respectively, 63, at Maler, 779, at Fotokol, a border town between Nigeria and Cameroon. 45 at Kuag­uru, 27 at Gadayamo,15 at Galadadani Dam in Madaga­li and ten persons from Disa village.

Usman, in a statement said seven persons held captives by Boko Haram terrorists were rescued at Betso vil­lage, among them, five elder­ly women and two girls, 14 from Sahuda, a border town with Cameroon, 59 at Bitta.

Sunnewsonline