Northeast destruction rivals Chechnya, Darfur – UN

The United Nations says the scale of assistance needed in the northeast has increased after troops liberated enclaves previously held by Boko Haram terrorists. UN assistant secretary-general and regional humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel, Toby Lanzer, called the scale of the crisis “staggering” and rivals levels of need and destruction seen in formerly strife-stricken Chechnya […]

The United Nations says the scale of assistance needed in the northeast has increased after troops liberated enclaves previously held by Boko Haram terrorists.

UN assistant secretary-general and regional humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel, Toby Lanzer, called the scale of the crisis “staggering” and rivals levels of need and destruction seen in formerly strife-stricken Chechnya and Darfur.

Lanzer told a media briefing after his recent fifth visit to the region: “”Nine million people need emergency relief; 4.5 million people are severely food insecure; 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes.”

He told Daily Trust: “I used to work in Chechnya. The level of destruction is some of the places that I’ve seen have certainly mirrored that. I used to work in Darfur; the level of need among the people of the Lake Chad Basin…you’ve got over nine million in need of emergency relief. This is huge. This mirrors the type of crisis I’ve ever seen anywhere.”

More results are expected in coming days and weeks from nongovernment organisations and UN agencies now able to move along the roads and spend nights in key towns and rural parts in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.

“It is only as we are able to move around that we have been able to learn the scale of the horror of what was happening,” said Lanzer, noting the Nigerian government and the international community would need to exert more effort to help resilient communities get back on their feet and get on with their lives.

But the UN group said Bama, with some 20,000 people concentrated in camps for displaced people, was firmly under control of Nigerian authorities and “felt more stable and safe.”

Schools and clinics manned by Nigerian workers have opened there, and the World Food Programme provides rations for 15,000 people while the International Organisation for Migration and UN Refugee Agency helps families build all-weather shelters.

The global body requested $279 million to fund humanitarian assistance in the region, but only a third of its entire response plan is funded, and it has received only $182m.

“Of course, the re-emergence of polio in Borno is another blow to the people of the region and a challenge for the authorities and aid agencies, alike. Our stated purpose is to meet people’s needs and I have no doubt that, together with an increasingly engaged donor community, much more good work must and can take place,” he said.