The United Nations, Chad, Niger and Cameroon appealed on Friday for help for millions of people in the Lake Chad Basin region forced to flee the violence of Boko Haram and hit with repeated droughts and floods that have brought malnutrition and disease.
But while the militants operate out of Nigeria and UN aid chief, Stephen O’Brien, said that is where most people have been displaced by their attacks, Nigeria did not send anyone to the event.
United States and European Union diplomats said they were disappointed that Nigeria did not attend the event chaired by O’Brien on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
The Nigerian UN mission was not immediately available to comment on its absence.
A regional offensive by Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon earlier this year drove Boko Haram from much of the territory it held in northern Nigeria. But the militants have since struck back with a renewed wave of deadly raids and suicide bombings.
“These (displaced) families are being used as ammunition because it is the children that are used as bombers in markets and in train stations,” Reuters quoted Chad’s Foreign Minister, Moussa Faki Mahamat, as saying on the matter.
“Trade is virtually wiped out in this area.”
Several UN diplomats at the event warned that the aid emergency in Lake Chad Basin risked being forgotten amid other humanitarian crises in Syria, Yemen and South Sudan.
Niger Prime Minister, Brigi Rafini, said the region was in the midst of a “genuine disaster.”
No comments:
Post a Comment