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Entire villages in the Diffa region have been deserted following increased attacks by insurgent groups in the region since August 2015. This is most prevalent along the Komadougou River which serves as a natural boundary between Niger and the Northern states or Nigeria. During the first displacements in the region, the majority of the displaced people were welcomed into the homes of the host communities in towns and villages. However with the increase in internal movements following increased violence in the region in 2015, the host community can no longer help all of those in need. Instead entire villages are deserting their homes and fleeing to areas where they feel more secure. The majority of these people are choosing to settle along the main national road in the region, Route National 1 (for more information see: http://unhcrniger.tumblr.com/post/136596283354/route-nationale-1-goudron-des-d%C3%A9plac%C3%A9s).

The humanitarian community is struggling to respond to the urgent needs of the newly displaced. However, the displaced are clinging to their sense of community and identity, despite the hardships they are facing. All along Route National 1 handmade signs can be seen declaring the names of the villages where the various communities have come from. This makes it easier for the humanitarian community to identify the people and to provide the assistance they need, while it also maintains a sense of community and belonging for those who are displaced. The slideshow above shows a small sample of the signs declaring the names of the villages of the displaced communities. It is estimated that there are currently between 50,000 and 70,000 people living along the road with the numbers increasing day by day.

The Regional Representative and Refugee Coordinator for Nigeria and the Central African Republic, Ms. Liz Ahua has announced the publication of the 2016 Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRRP) for Nigeria on the UNHCR data portal today, the 8th of December 2015.
The Nigeria Situation RRRP includes the planned response to the refugee crisis in the Diffa region of Niger for 2016, including principle objectives and activities for each key sector, from a total of 22 humanitarian actors operating in the region.
The Emergency Relief Coordinator has launched OCHA’s Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) this afternoon in Geneva, in the presence and with the participation of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, with the inclusion of UNHCR’s RRRP for the first time in the GHO.
The RRRP can be downloaded from the data portal through the following link:
Nigeria 2016 RRRP http://data.unhcr.org/SahelSituation/download.php?id=1639

The Boko Haram insurgency has claimed more than 25,000 lives in the past six years. Humanitarian news service IRIN would like to share a new in-depth feature: “Fleeing Boko Haram: Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide” highlighting a conflict that has displaced more than 2.5 million people in the Lake Chad Basin region since May 2013, which is around four times the number of migrants and refugees that have arrived in Europe so far this year.

Although the conflict has dropped off the mainstream news agenda, border areas where refugees flee in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger are increasingly under attack. Scores of people have been killed in the last few weeks in a string of suicide bombings in the main northeastern cities where they seek refuge. So pervasive is the insurgency, it is even starting to strike the displacement camps where the most desperate seek help. The feature includes reporting from around the region, in Maiduguri, Kaduna and Yola in Nigera, and Kousseri in Cameroon.

The Diffa region of Niger – originally a place of refuge for scores of refugees from the North Eastern part of Nigeria, has also fallen victim to the violence of Boko Haram. The first attacks on Nigerien territory occurred in February 2015 and there have been numerous attacks since then. For more information on attacks within the Diffa region see OCHA infographic, available at: https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/Niger/Diffa_Incidents_Securite_07102015.pdf

The Nigeria Crisis and the violence of the insurgent group Boko Haram has resulted in the upheaval and displacement of 2.5 million people across Central and West Africa. This includes IDPs and refugees, and is not confined to Nigeria, but has spread to the neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad and Cameroon. This violence and terror has escalated in the past number of months. The Diffa region of Niger now hosts an estimated 138,321 displaced people – amongst them refugees and returnees. For more statistics and information regarding the region, visit: http://data.unhcr.org/SahelSituation/regional.php. The humanitarian community is facing severe challenges in responding to this regional crisis, including lack of funding, and difficulties in providing security and protection to the millions of displaced.

Africa Refugee Voices is a bi-weekly newsletter produced by UNHCR Kenya, which provides highlights of refugee stories from across the region. To subscribe to the newsletter, visit: http://us11.campaign-archive2.com/?u=ae8bdac033d5255076ebc28a2&id=b8c3e5b876&e=a454c98592.

Distributions de vivres à Diffa. ©WFP

Les mouvements de populations dans la région de Diffa ont continué durant les mois de juillet et d’août. Selon différentes sources, environ 20 000 personnes en provenance de la ville de Damassak au Nigeria se sont réfugiés au Niger après le retrait des troupes de l’armée tchadienne de ce village.
Début août, dans les deux sites temporaires d’accueils de ces réfugiés à Gagamari et Chétimari, le PAM et CARE International, ont effectué un exercice de ciblage afin d’apporter une assistance alimentaire à près de 1 000 familles ainsi que des compléments nutritionnels aux femmes enceintes et allaitantes et aux enfants âgés de 6 à 59 mois. A Diffa, le PAM apporte une assistance à près de 170 000 bénéficiaires y compris les déplacés internes, les réfugiés, les retournés et les populations locales vulnérables. Pour la période de soudure, le PAM a augmenté son assistante à près de 130 000 bénéficiaires auxquels il faut ajouter les populations des camps et les distributions d’urgence ad hoc pour les nouveaux déplacés.
La situation de la sécurité alimentaire à Diffa reste préoccupante. Les évaluations du Système d’Alerte Précoce (SAP), conduites avec les partenaires du gouvernement, montrent que la région reste chroniquement déficitaire pour l’agriculture pluviale. De plus, en raison des restrictions sécuritaires, les populations n’ont pu cultiver qu’une partie de leurs terres et beaucoup de déplacés internes ont perdu leurs moyens d’existence.
Face à cette situation et au regard des besoins humanitaires, le défi pour le PAM est de bénéficier de financements suffisants pour la période d’après soudure à partir de début octobre afin de ne pas réduire le nombre de ses bénéficiaires, d’assister les ménages les plus vulnérables et de garder une capacité de réponse pour les nouveaux déplacements.

Toby Lanzer UN Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel

Two years into Boko Haram’s brutal cycle of violence, what could well become Africa’s largest displacement crisis is now unravelling across the Lake Chad Basin, straddling Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. Already over 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes. Violence has disrupted the childhood of over 1.4 million boys and girls, uprooted from their homes and schools. Those who ran for their lives did not have the means, nor the force, to go very far. They are hosted by their very neighbors, who count amongst the world’s worst-off communities.
Sitting in a household in Niger’s region of Diffa – the poorest region of the poorest country in the world – and listening to Nigerian refugees and the local family who have opened the doors of their home to them, one is struck by two things: The extent of the horror refugees had to live through and the immense generosity of their hosts.

The United Nation High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), have said that over 200,000 Nigerian Refugees from the northeastern part of the country are currently taking refuge in the neigbhouring countries of Republic of Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
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In Diffa, Nigerian people embarking on trucks chartered by the Regional authorities to go to Geidam (Nigeria). © UNHCR / I. Abdou

APA - 10 May 2015 : Authorities in Nigeria’s embattled northeast state of Borno have confirmed the setting up of a special camp to provide care for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) recently repatriated from neighbouring Niger Republic.No fewer than 6,000 IDPs from Borno, taking refuge in some communities in Niger Republic, were sent packing by the Nigerien authorities, after insurgents, suspected to be Boko Haram fighters attacked the country.
Alhaji Grema Terab, Chairman of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), told journalists in Maiduguri on Saturday that the government had decided to establish a special camp for the IDPs because of their peculiar case.
Grema said: “some of the IDPs were living in border communities between Nigeria and Niger Republic for years without having any business to visit the hinterland. We have to keep them in a camp for now, console them and treat those that are traumatised with the intention of allowing them to mix with other Nigerians soon.” He said the government was working towards assisting the IDPs with capital to start businesses.
Grema, said that another set of 17 mass transit buses had been dispatched to Geidam in Yobe State to convey the second batch of about 1,200 IDPs. The five-year insurgency by Boko Haram has left tens of thousands of people in northeastern Nigeria displaced in and out of the country.
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Mr Djaboullam à Diffa le jour de son retour du Nigéria. ©UNHCR / Ibrahim Abdou

Certains réfugiés nigérians avaient regagné leur pays pour participer aux processus électoral. La plupart sont aujourd’hui revenus au Niger dans la région de Diffa. Les frais de voyage étaient pris en charge par les autorités de l’Etat de Borno.

Monsieur Djaboullam fait partie de ces électeurs ayant fait le voyage. Devant le complexe hôtelier de Diffa, il attend avec d’autres son acheminement jusqu’au département de Bosso. Ils seraient selon lui plus de 4,000 à être partis voter. Tous seraient aujourd’hui revenus. Comme le confirme M. Djaboullam « chacun va regagner sa famille d’accueil ou le village où il est installé. Nous allons retrouver nos épouses et nos enfants. Nous sommes partis pour les élections présidentielles et législatives car ne voulions participer à ce moment important. Nous espérons le retour de la paix définitive dans nos régions et villages anéantis par l’extrémisme. Nous espérons retrouver enfin nos maisons nos et activités ».

Mais pour l’instant comme le souligne M. Djaboullam, l’avenir se trouve hors du Nigéria : « nous resterons au Niger jusqu’à ce que la situation sécuritaire chez nous soit définitivement bonne. On verra alors les opportunités qui s’offrent à nous pour retourner et reprendre notre vie. Mais pour l’instant la possibilité de rejoindre le camp qui va ouvrir à Kabelawa nous intéresse. Aujourd’hui, en attendant l’amélioration de la situation dans notre pays, nous sommes plus disposés qu’avant à rejoindre un camp qui va mieux nous sécuriser et protéger nos familles».

Selon les informations récoltées par IRC, la semaine dernière plus de 6,500 nouveaux déplacés sont arrivés dans la région de Diffa en provenance de Nigéria.

Herdsman and its livestock, Diffa, Niger, Maria Luengo

The AREN, Association pour la Redynamisation de l’Elevage au Niger, wrote a report highlighting the alarming situation of livestock and agricultural activities in the Diffa region.

Traditional livestock and agriculture activities in the Diffa region strongly depend on rainfalls. Even though there is a rainy season, rainfalls are often not abundant enough and irregularly spreads over the territory. This year, the Diffa region only registered one forage production enabling to feed 40% of the livestock. Pastoral herding is then a challenging activity in such circumstances, and since the attacks of the insurgents, beginning of February, it is a serious issue. Harouna Hardo, a stock breeder from the North of Diffa, says: “The bad winter season that follows one another in Niger, particularly in Diffa make impossible the breeding of our cattle and we are considerably poorer. Even more extreme this year, the prevailing insecurity along our borders is overwhelming our pastoral zones. “

Indeed, pastoral activities rely on the herd’s movement across a given territory, and since the deterioration of the security situation, the movements on traditional axes are not possible anymore. Farmers, stock breeders and fishermen usually staying in the South East of Bosso, bed of Lake Chad, and all along the Komadougou River for its availability in water, are now all leaving and heading towards North West area. This has for consequence a strong pressure on already existing pastures and existing resources for them. Harouna deplores that “the grazing situation is very critical this year, like previous years we barely overcome the difficulty and it is taking away lives in the population of our livestock.”

Economic activities are totally disturbed in the Diffa region. To access the market to buy food for the livestock or to sell animals in order to better respond to the herd’s need is today impossible. Diffa region is one of the poorest in the world where any activity is a challenge due to the harsh environment and very little respite given by nature. Since the insurgent’s attacks, the situation for herdsmen is dire.