UN Releases N3.7bn To Support IDP’s In the Northeast
The United Nations has released about N3.7bn ($13m) as life-saving support to over 250,000 Internally Displaced Persons in the North-East.
This was according to UN Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O’Brien, who made the announcement on Tuesday, adding that the cash is from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).
CERF is a pooled fund that supports rapid humanitarian response and donors preposition funds with CERF so that money is available immediately to kick-start relief operations in new emergencies and to provide live-saving assistance in crises that remain underfunded.
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According to O’Brien, the fund will support the provision of food, cash for food purchase, special child nutritional supplements, protection and health services to the most vulnerable people in the areas.
The UN intends to achieve this through structured disbursements of the CERF funds to its agencies, such as FAO, UNDSS, UNFPA, UNHAS, UNHCR, UNICEF and WFP.
The statement read: “The United Nations humanitarian chief, Stephen O’Brien, has released $13m from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), to provide life-saving assistance to 250,000 people in parts of the North-East of Nigeria.
“The destruction of crops and looting of livestock have left many people unable to support their families.
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“More than 50,000 people need seeds and tools for the upcoming planting season. Women, girls, men and boys have suffered or witnessed terrible abuses.
“CERF funds will enable humanitarian partners to provide critical psycho- social support and protection services. CERF funding will help them to rebuild their livelihoods.”
He also expressed that the international community must take advantage of this opening to reach people with essential services and build on the CERF allocation to scale up the response.
According to the statement, the Humanitarian Response Plan for Nigeria was revised upwards by N14.3bn ($51m) this month, and currently needs N78.4bn (about $279m).
Since 2015, CERF has supported life-saving assistance in response to Boko Haram-related violence with more than $58 million, bringing its total support to more than $70 million, including this new injection of $13 million.
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The statement added that the IDPs had suffered so much from the activities of Boko Haram in the North East and needed to be supported for survival.
Since the current insurgency started in 2009, Boko haram has killed over 20,000 and displaced 2.3 million people from their homes. The Islamic extremist group was ranked as the world’s deadliest terror group by the Global Terrorism Index in 2015.
