Food aid to double after fresh Boko Haram attacks

Food aid will be doubled for people uprooted by Boko Haram violence in southeast Niger after recent attacks forced 50,000 people to flee their homes, the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) said on Tuesday. Boko Haram earlier this month seized the town of Bosso in Niger’s Diffa region, killing 32 soldiers in the Islamist […]

Food aid will be doubled for people uprooted by Boko Haram violence in southeast Niger after recent attacks forced 50,000 people to flee their homes, the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) said on Tuesday.
Boko Haram earlier this month seized the town of Bosso in Niger’s Diffa region, killing 32 soldiers in the Islamist group’s deadliest assault in the country since April last year.
The militants have recently ramped up attacks in Diffa, home to at least 250,000 uprooted Nigeriens and Nigerian refugees, and many people have been displaced several times, the WFP said.
“Many people have walked from 10 km to 40 kms (6 to 25 miles). They are arriving in a state of shock, and urgently need food, shelter, water – assistance with their most basic needs,” said Belkacem Machane, WFP Niger deputy country director, in a statement.
“They have now reached the end of their rope,” Machane said.