The UN has called for the safety and security of aid workers in Nigeria’s explosive northeast, where a jihadist conflict has claimed the lives of 35 humanitarian staff in the past six years.
As per the United Nations, 21 people have been injured and 28 kidnapped since 2016.
At least 40,000 people have been died in the region and around 2 million have been forced to escape their homes since 2009, when Boko Haram began its Islamist rebellion.
The violence has spread to neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis in the region.
The UN humanitarian agency in Nigeria (OCHA) said in a statement on World Humanitarian Day, “Since 2016, 35 aid workers have been killed in northeast Nigeria, according to the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD).”
It further added, “Twenty-two have been injured and 28 kidnapped. So far in 2022, six aid workers have been kidnapped and one has been killed in the region.”
The UN Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, commended aid workers for providing life-saving assistance to millions of people in the restive area.
He said, “Despite the many challenges in the crisis, we should all be immensely proud of humanitarians’ impact in northeast Nigeria. Through our combined effort, our humanitarian ‘village’ delivered assistance to five million people last year. That assistance saved countless lives, improving living conditions, and protected the most vulnerable people.”
The United Nations said, “This year, 8.4 million people needed humanitarian help in northeast Nigeria.”
Deteriorating food security is one of the most worrying aspects of the crisis, it said, warning that “approximately 1.74 million children under five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition across the north-east in 2022.”
