NAN-H-77
Aid
By Lizzy Okoji
Abuja, Jan. 31, 2018 (NAN) The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday launched an inter-agency funding appeal seeking 157 million dollars to assist persons affected by the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin Region.
Mr Hanson Tamfu, the External Relations Officer, UNHCR, Nigeria made this known in a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to Tamfu, the UNHCR launched the funding appeal together with humanitarian partners in Niamey, Niger Republic on Wednesday to cater for over a quarter of a million people affected by the insurgency in the region.
He said the 47 UN agencies and humanitarian organisations, which joined the 2018 Nigeria Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRRP), would cater for the needs of some 208,000 Nigerian refugees and 75,000 of their hosts in Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
He quoted Mr Kelly Clements, UNHCR’s Deputy High Commissioner as saying, “the Boko Haram crisis lingers on and is far from being over’’.
“The world should not forget the victims of this deadly conflict, especially as there appears to be little hope for a return to peace and stability in the near future.
“Nigerian refugees continue to arrive in very remote and impoverished communities in neighbouring countries.
“Since it started in 2013, the Boko Haram conflict has internally displaced another 2.4 million people in northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
“One of the most devastating side effects of the conflict is the alarming rise in food insecurity and severe malnutrition populations are facing to date and over 7.2 million people in the Lake Chad Basin region were food insecure in September 2017.
“The future of young generations in the region is at stake as food insecurity not only affects the dignity of families, but has serious consequences on the physical and cognitive development of children,” Clements said.
Tamfu said the conflict had had a devastating impact on access to education and school attendance rates, while hundreds of schools had been forced to close throughout the region where education levels were already among the lowest worldwide.
He said the communities hosting refugees were also in dire need of aid as their capacity to help those displaced, including through existing infrastructure for basic services “is stretched to the limit’’.
According to him, humanitarian assistance is needed to uplift services in a number of sectors including shelter, health, education and water and sanitation.
He explained that the RRP was a UNHCR-led, inter-agency planning and coordination tool for large-scale or complex refugee situations.
He said that a similar appeal of 241 million dollars for 2017 was only 56 per cent funded. (NAN)
LIZ/GY
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Edited by Grace Yussuf