The
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has
said the agency would need $1 billion in its bid to provide urgent and
quality humanitarian assistance to victims of Boko Haram Insurgency in
the three northern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in 2017.
The
amount which is more than double of what the agency appealed for in
2016 is occasioned by the worsening humanitarian conditions in the area,
which is said to be the worst in the region.
United
Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Peter Lundberg, disclosed
this to newsmen in Abuja, at the unveiling of the Humanitarian Response
Plan for 2017.
He
said, “Together with 75 partners, we are seeking US$1 billion to
deliver life-saving assistance and prevent further hardship for the
children, women and men in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States, and we are
particularly reaching out to Nigerian private sector.
“We
are grateful to the international community for their support so far,
but we ask for commitments throughout 2017 to prevent this disaster from
escalating into widespread catastrophe.”
Lundberg,
while calling for urgent support from all and sundry stated that if
nothing urgently is done to help mitigate the situation, millions of
people in the area may lose their lives within the next few months.
He
disclosed that the 2017 plan will focus on 8.5 million people in
need of urgent assistance and also aimed at reaching 6.9 million people
with life-saving humanitarian support. Also targeted are the over 75,000
children who may like die from severe famine and malnutrition if
something urgent is not done.
Minister
of State, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who appreciated
the agency and the entire international community for rallying round
Nigeria in this crisis situation, disclosed that the government is not
just focused on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) but the interest of
all communities affected and also those communities that have been
providing support to the IDPs.
Stressing
the urgent need to address the issue of hunger, Ahmed appealed to the
agency and her partners to scale up efforts and reach at least 3 million
people with food supplies. She also tasked the agency on improving
health conditions in the region by particularly ensuring that the
renewed outbreak of polio in the area is curtailed.
“Education
is also important as a lot of these children have been out of school
for a very long time. 50% of the 8.1 million people in need of urgent
assistance are children and we must help them”, she said.
The
agency apart from intervening in the area of food and health is also
assisting in the area of water and sanitation, shelter, education,
empowerment amongst others.
Credit: thisdaylive
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