The United Nations Donates $31 Million to Nigeria, Lake Chad Region for Insurgency Victims

Mr Stephen O’Brien, the United Nations Officer for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), , has allocated $31 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support humanitarian partners in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin region.

This was contained in a statement issued by Mr Jens Laerke, from OCHA, in New York, United States, on Tuesday.
The allocation is to assist Nigeria in the humanitarian situation which is worsening due to violence perpetrated by Boko Haram.

He said, the CERF funding, would provide life-saving assistance to almost 1.7 million affected people in the four countries. Some $10 million,would bolster relief efforts in Nigeria.

It said that women and girls kidnapped by Boko Haram had been subjected to physical and psychological abuse, forced labour, forced marriage and sexual slavery.Boys, OCHA said, have been forcibly enrolled as combatants.
It added that the CERF funding for Nigeria would also be critical for providing emergency shelter, health care, safe drinking water and sanitation and nutrition for affected people currently living in overcrowded camps in the North East of the country.

The UN’s global humanitarian fund provides immediate funding for life-saving humanitarian action at the onset of emergencies and for neglected crises that have not attracted sufficient funding.
Since its inception in 2006, 125 UN Member States and Observers, private-sector donors and regional governments have supported the Fund.

To date, CERF has allocated almost 4.2 billion dollars in support of humanitarian operations in 94 countries and territories.