By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
The Boko Haram Insurgency which has results to humanitarian crisis in North-East Nigeria has become a prolong devastating problem paralyzing socio economic and political activities of the people in the region for almost twelve years, despite the international and national interventions from iNGOs and NGOs as well as CBOs.
The insurgency has no doubt truncated peace, unity, stability and development of the region in various ways resulting in significant widespread displacement of millions of people from their ancestral homes, turning them into refugees in their own fatherland, destroying basic infrastructure provided by governments and organizations as well as individuals.
This scenario completely collapsed the basic social and economic facilities and services provided with series of threats and attacks by insurgents who are also known as non-state armed groups leading to restrictions of movements by the security agents or operatives which also have continued to have negative effects on the livelihood of th people, their trading activities and livelihoods
The situation has exposed the people to severe hardships and untold sufferings leading to a substantial proportion of the population relying heavily and largely on humanitarian support and assistance from the NGOs, philanthropists , organizations and governments.
According to UN Humanitarian Coordinator Nigeria, Mr Edward Kalllon, recently in his address at the two day State Security Summit organized by the Borno State Government, said it was on record that as at November 2020, about 2,144,135 people are still displaced in the three most affected states of the North East, namely – Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States with 80 percent of the displaced population being women and children.
In fact, it has reached a stage that, the insurgency has greatly impacted on the freedom of movements, livelihoods of the people, markets places or commercial activities and accessibility to farmlands as humanitarian accessibility to rural dwellers or IDPs in some camps across the state have become impossible due to insurgency.
This has pathetically resulted in a static and severe food insecurity and emergency in nutrition in the North East of Nigeria as well Niger, Chad and Cameroon Republics. Even though recent surveillance of emergency survey carried out by Cadre Harmonize Analysis conducted in October 2020 by the UN and the Nigeria Food Security Outlook from October 2020 to May 2021 have shown a serious deterioration of the nutrition level and food insecurity among more people affected by the Boko Haram crisis.
The Cadre Harmonize Analysis also indicated that 4,107,638 people were affected by the crisis in the period of October to December 2020 in the Northeast, with even expectations that the figure will increase to about 6,005,822 people to be affected by the humanitarian crisis in the period of June-August 2021.
However, it has been in record that the situation is critically worst for about 1,110,166 people living in the security prone and inaccessible LGAs with about 689,126 population expected to be in the humanitarian crisis for the period of October-December 2020 which is further expected to increase to about 867,470 in the period of June to August 2021.
This could mainly be attributed to the prolong insurgency which is being fueled by the insurgents coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic and other measures adopted by the security operatives in restricting the framers and fishermen from going to their farmlands and river banks to fish for both local and commercial consumption.
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