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United States Announces Additional Humanitarian Assistance for Lake Chad Basin Region
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U.S. Department of State, 23/09/2016
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The United States announced today more than $41 million in additional humanitarian assistance to people affected by the ongoing conflict and severe food insecurity in Nigeria and throughout the Lake Chad Basin region, where more than 6 million people need emergency food assistance, and 2.6 million people are displaced.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power made the announcement at a high-level event on the humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad Basin, on the margins of the 71st United Nations General Assembly.
With this announcement, the United States is providing more than $359 million since fiscal year 2015 to people affected by Boko Haram-related conflict and the related humanitarian crisis. The United States continues to be the single largest humanitarian donor to the region.
This new funding to United Nations and NGO partners will help tens of thousands of peop... |
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Les leaders religieux équipés pour la prévention de la violence extrême dans la région de l’Extrême-Nord
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UNDP, 22/09/2016
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Depuis 2014 la crise sécuritaire dans la région de l'Extrême Nord du Cameroun a révélé au grand jour les vulnérabilités socioéconomiques et les pesanteurs culturelles qui sapent l’insertion des couches défavorisées, particulièrement les femmes et les jeunes. Ces fragilités sont sources de conflits et exposent les jeunes particulièrement à l’intolérance et à la violence extrême.
Afin d’appréhender les besoins précis de ces couches fragiles, le PNUD a organisé en 2015, des forums de dialogue au cours desquels les besoins prioritaires des jeunes urbains et ruraux et ceux des femmes ont été identifiés et les axes du dialogue intercommunautaire et interreligieux ont été également tracés.
Dans la continuité de ces activités, un atelier de renforcement des capacités d’encadrement socioéconomique et de prévention de l’extrémisme violent par... |
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Boko Haram leaves Nigeria a lifetime of mental trauma
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Agence France Presse, 25/09/2016
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Maiduguri, Nigeria | AFP | Sunday 9/25/2016 - 04:09 GMT
by Aminu ABUBAKAR Phil HAZLEWOOD
The soldier clutched his book with both hands. He shouted his name, rank and Nigerian Army number to no-one in particular. He stood up straight and ended every reply with a bark of "sah" (sir).
But his eyes were fixed to a slowly cranking ceiling fan in the hospital ward -- the thousand yard stare of someone who had seen too much and didn't want to remember.
The soldier said he was caught up in a Boko Haram ambush and colleagues were killed. A bullet hit him in the leg and he hadn't seen combat since.
Instead, he saw the inside of beer bottles, the smoke of cannabis joints, then the drug dependency ward of the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Maiduguri.
Nurses said he was violent and abusive when he was admitted, but after a week he calmed down.
"In times of war, when we are... |
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Boko Haram refugees in Niger find safety, but lack aid
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Aljazeera, 28/09/2016
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Diffa, Niger - As Nigerian forces have progressed against Boko Haram, the cornered terror group has been carrying out more attacks in neighbouring countries. In Niger's Diffa region on the northeastern border of Nigeria, more than 280,000 people have been displaced.
Most of the displaced, do not live in refugee camps, but in ramshackle settlements next to a national highway. The situation continues to deteriorate and new families arrive on a daily basis, fleeing violence and hunger in the Lake Chad Basin. Humanitarian aid organisations struggle to reach everyone in need of assistance.
Only a few years ago, Diffa was mainly known as a trade region. Bordering Lake Chad and blessed with a relative fertile ground in this semi-desert environment. Fish and agricultural products such as millet, pepper and maize were widely available at local markets.
Since February 2015 however, the d... |
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Nigeria: Crisis Info on Borno Emergency - September 2016
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MSF, 28/09/2016
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The conflict in Borno State started in 2009 when Boko Haram launched attacks in Bauchi, Borno, Yobe and Kano. By 2014, Boko Haram controlled large swathes of territory in Borno State.
In 2015, Nigeria elected a new President who vowed to take back control of territory from Boko Haram and also stamp out corruption in the country. Since then the Nigerian army has been engaged in fighting with Boko Haram, including by launching airstrikes that began in 2016, in areas under Boko Haram control. The army has now taken back many cities and villages and is securing them.
The nature of the conflict between the Nigerian army and Boko Haram has changed to include military assistance from the neighbouring countries of Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
MSF Projects
Maiduguri
MSF has been present in Maiduguri on a permanent basis since April 2014 working on paediatric and maternal health and n... |
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The women who love and loved Boko Haram
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Aljazeera, 22/09/2016
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Maiduguri, Nigeria - A few dozen women sit on mats in the shadow of a neem tree. Their giggles rise with the hot dusty air as they sketch elaborate designs on their hands with henna.
Some of the women wear abayas; others wear short-sleeved blouses with long skirts and hijabs. They talk about their children, their hair, what they will cook that evening after breaking their Ramadan fast.
After a while, the conversation turns to their husbands.
"Oh, my husband, I love him so much," says Aisha the Amira.
The flamboyant 25-year-old flings her head back as she laughs. In a flowing gown and a tall, majestic head wrap, she radiates the nobility of her title, Amira, or princess. A reddish-orange stone sparkles on her left hand.
"My husband gave me this ring," she says, wiggling her shoulders. "My husband, he's an Arab. So handsome and he always gave me money."
The women look at ... |
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Boko Haram Rages in Nigeria, but the World’s Eyes Are Elsewhere
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New York Times, 22/09/2016
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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — The crisis spawned by Boko Haram has drawn hundreds of thousands of people to a relatively little-known city in Nigeria that has finally become safe enough for them to wait out an end to the awful, deadly war.
With villagers from the countryside pouring in, it is almost as though the entire city, Maiduguri, has become a sprawling refugee camp.
Tented government encampments dot the exurbs where people wait for bags of food to arrive. Once-quaint neighborhoods overflow with cardboard hovels filled with young children who are lucky to eat three meals a day.
Squatters live in old university buildings or crammed inside homes with relatives or kind strangers. Old men sit along busy streets asking for money. At the massive Monday Market, women sell handfuls of fruit or jewelry, hoping to earn enough to pay for a meal.
And those are the fortunate ones.
Other... |
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Chibok girls: Nigeria's Buhari calls for UN mediation
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BBC, 22/09/2016
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Nigeria's president has called for the UN to mediate with militant Islamist group Boko Haram to secure the release of schoolgirls it is holding captive.
Muhammadu Buhari said he was prepared to swap militants who are in custody for the girls.
The more than 200 girls were seized during a raid on a school in the north-eastern town of Chibok in 2014.
Previous efforts by neighbouring Chad to broker a deal with Boko Haram to secure the girls' release failed.
Speaking on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly meeting in New York, Mr Buhari said that splits within the ranks of Boko Haram, which is affiliated to the Islamic State (IS) group, made it difficult to hold talks with them.
"Government had reached out, ready to negotiate, but it became difficult to identify credible leaders. We will welcome intermediaries such as UN outfits, to step in," Mr Buhari said.
The U... |
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Nigeria ready to 'swap' Boko Haram prisoners for Chibok girls
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The Guardian, 16/09/2016
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Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, is prepared to swap Boko Haram prisoners for the Chibok schoolgirls, a minister has said.
Last year the government almost secured the release of the girls whose kidnapping triggered global outrage, but three times the negotiations collapsed. On the first occasion, in August, Buhari had agreed to the prisoner swap and the militants were taken to Maiduguri, the city Boko Haram regards as its spiritual home.
“All things were in place for the swap which was mutually agreed,” Lai Mohammed, the information minister, said in a statement. “Expectations were high. Unfortunately, after more than two weeks of negotiation and bargains, the group, just at the dying moments, issued a new set of demands never bargained for or discussed by the group before the movement to Maiduguri. All this while, the security agencies waited patiently. This developm... |
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Will changes in Boko Haram leadership revive local support?
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Institute for Security Studies, 22/09/2016
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Local support for the so-called West Africa Province of the Islamic State (more commonly referred to as Boko Haram) has always been a nebulous subject.
Often measured in terms of recruitment, local support for the organisation has been erratic over time and shaped by various factors. Nonetheless, recent developments in the group’s leadership structure have made it necessary to consider how such changes might affect these patterns of support.
Recently, the Islamic State appointed Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the new leader of the movement. At the same time, there have also been reports of long-time head and current rival Abubakar Shekau’s purported demise. Al-Barnawi’s agenda, which includes ending attacks on Muslim civilians and instead redirecting efforts against state institutions, may be rooted in ideological considerations – but it could also be aimed at reviving local backi... |
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