Ursula Mueller, the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, has said 10 million people in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger require aid due to Boko Haram insurgency.
She stated this Thursday after a visit to Chad.
Mueller said: “Persistent insecurity and Boko Haram operations mean that more than 10 million people in four countries – Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria – will need aid assistance this year just to survive.”
The Special envoy also said humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad region is among the worst in the world. She called for urgent funding to support 4.4 million people in Chad, including refugees, returnees and the IDPs.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, had said the closure of Chad’s border with Nigeria in 2015, and implementation of emergency measures, have negatively impacted on the lives of the local populations.
“The activities of the extremist group Boko Haram, as well as violence in Sudan and the Central African Republic, have affected 500,000 people there, including 137,000 people the UN has deemed particularly vulnerable.
“During my visit to displacement sites, I saw the difficult living conditions and lack of means displaced communities face.
“It is unacceptable that these men, women and children who have lost everything, their home, belonging, livelihood and very often family members, continue to live in fear and uncertainty,” she added.
