The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has called for a pragmatic collaboration among stakeholders to mitigate the humanitarian crisis in the North East. UNOCHA Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Peter Lundberg made the appeal at a news conference on the agency’s humanitarian
intervention in the three most severely affected states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa in Abuja.
Mr. Lundberg specifically called on donor agencies, philanthropists, the three tiers of Nigerian governments and the media to assist victims of the insurgency by scaling up resources.
He said that the victims were in dire need of improved security, food, water, shelter, education and health services to resume normal life.
The UN official disclosed that no fewer than 14.8 million people were currently in need of urgent humanitarian assistance and called for additional support to enable them survive daily.
He explained that more than 400,000 children out of the estimated 14.8 million affected were at critical stage of survival, warning that the situation is rapidly moving toward the wrong direction.
Lundberg also alerted the world that about 75,000 lives would be lost by next year if urgent measures are not put in place to stop the crisis in the region.
He described the humanitarian situation in the zone as having global proportion and one of the worst in the African continent.
The official noted that the agency is targeting about seven million people in its humanitarian intervention next year out of the 14.8 million people urgently in need of interventions.
He listed the agency’s intervention to include food, security, shelter and health facilities, among others, adding however that an effective solution to humanitarian crisis required holistic and long term approach.
Lundberg who noted that the agency requested for about 485 million dollars to effectively cushion the effect of humanitarian crisis inthe region in 2016, however said that only 180 million dollars have been received so far.
He described the responses as too meagre to resolve the alarming situation, urging donor agencies and partners to redeem their pledges to put smiles on the faces of the affected Nigerians.
