By Asma’u Ahmad
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Nigeria, said it has planned to provide humanitarian assistance to not less than 6.9 million people in North East Nigeria.
The agency said in a statement made available to newsmen that the targeted people were in dire need of nutrition, shelter, health, education, protection, water and sanitation in 2017.
The statement said the long-running conflict has left some 8.5 million people in need of assistance in the North-eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
UNOCHA said humanitarian partners have deployed personnel to areas of Nigeria’s North East that were previously unreachable to provide assistance to civilians.
It added that some areas in the region are grappling with hunger, malnutrition, lack of medical assistance, water and other basic services owing to the protracted Boko Haram-related crises.
The UN agency projected that 5.1 million people will face serious food shortages as the conflict and risk of un-exploded improvised devices have hampered farming for a third year in a row.
It added that the situation is causing a major food crisis in the region.
Meanwhile, UNOCHA said that 15 patients were airlifted from Rann to Maiduguri, bringing the total number to 89 people evacuated following the military accidental airstrike on Rann on January 17.
“Surgical teams in four hospitals; two public and two military in Maiduguri continue to perform operations and treat the injured.
“Medical assistance is also ongoing in Rann, a locality in the far-north of Nigeria bordering Cameroon and Chad, and medical evacuations are ongoing since the 17 January aerial bombardment,” the statement said.
It added that the humanitarian community is working on ways to improve assistance to those wounded in Rann.
