The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has said that an estimated 7.8 million people affected by over a decade of violence in the northeast part of Nigeria require urgent humanitarian support, including life-saving aid, protection, safer water and sanitation
Making the disclosure at a virtual press conference on Tuesday -yesterday, January 21 – ahead of the launch of the 2025 Nigeria Humanitarian need and response, Head of Office for the UN humanitarian coordination in Nigeria, Mr Trond Jensen, said that “in 2025 an estimated 7.8 million women, men and children across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe (BAY) states will require humanitarian assistance.”
Of this staggering number of the needy, Trond further disclosed that over 1.8 million have been forced to flee their homes, living at internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps and unable to fully return to their original communities due to persistent violence.
Although nearly 1.4 million people have since returned to their homes, lack of access to essential services like water, sanitation and livelihoods remain a big issue in the violence-hit region, according to the UN humanitarian official.
He explained that about 4.6 million people are taking refuge in host communities in the three states, facing the dire consequences of the violence.
Consequently, urgent funds are needed to provide support to such an affected population, warning that 2.5 million will face malnutrition in the area this year if immediate support is not provided.
Warning that humanitarian response in Nigeria is hampered by inadequate funds, protracted attacks, inclement weather and restricted environment due to ongoing military operation, Trond said: “We have not received funds for 2025. Since 2022, funding has reduced.”
He said the 2025 humanitarian response aims at saving life, providing protection and access of the affected people to basic human needs such as safer water, hygiene and sanitation.
“Humanitarian need and response is a plan put in place by the UN for regions affected by conflict,” he stressed, adding that the UN is focusing on the northeast because “it was invited by the government of Nigeria.”
According to Trond, the UN is also responding to the humanitarian needs in the northwest, which is experiencing banditry at the moment, but insisted it will only be “a social and not economic intervention.”
