Children attend school in the town of Banki, which was recaptured by the Nigerian military in 2015 from Boko Haram, in Banki, Nigeria, 28 September 2017.
For more than 8-years, Boko Haram related violence has devastated the lives of families and in particular children across northeast Nigeria. Nearly 1 million children have been displaced by the crisis and around 20,000 people killed, amid horrific violations of child rights. Children who have been killed, maimed and abducted, widespread sexual violence and the forcible recruitment of women and children as ‘human bombs’. Attacks on children, as well as children forced to carry out attacks, are so common that they are almost expected or accepted as part of the conflict.
UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director, Justin Forsyth, visits Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, from 27 September to 29 September 2017. On the trip, Forsyth visited a UNICEF supported clinic, providing inpatient therapeutic care in Maiduguri town. The clinic is providing critical support to children affected by severe acute malnutrition, including an intensive care unit. With Maiduguri hosting so many displaced persons, there is a serious strain on health services. Forsyth met a one month old boy who had been left in a bag by the roadside. Some people thought the baby was a bomb. However, Aisha a mother of seven other children realized it was a baby and rushed the boy, who is now named Mohamed, to the clinic. She is now the surrogate mother.
Banki on the border with Cameroon, has been almost been completely destroyed and now houses thousands of displaced persons who have gathered at a camp for their own safety and to access basic services. In Banki, Forsyth went to a UNICEF supported primary health care clinic that is helping to treat children with severe acute malnutrition, saving many lives. He also sat in on a class at a temporary school set up to provide some opportunities for children to resume school and have some fun again. The three schools in the town were destroyed and UNICEF is helping to rehabilitate one of the schools to provide better opportunities for the years to come.
Some 36 leading international nongovernment organisations working in Nigeria say they remain committed to work with the Nigerian government to alleviate humanitarian crisis in the north east.
It comes hours before the government is to launch its 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan.
The forum of international NGOs says its members are committed to provide timely, quality and to scale life-saving assistance, strengthen coordination with all stakeholders including the Government of Nigeria, as well as link humanitarian efforts with development opportunities in the affected areas particularly in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States where possible.
“There is growing concern among INGOs that there is a perception that they are not demonstrating accountability nor operating by the rules and regulations existing in Nigeria,” said Jennifer Jalovec, director of the INGO Forum.
“The INGO Forum would like to reiterate that its members follow existing regulatory frameworks, operate based on principled humanitarian assistance and are committed to supporting the people of Nigeria.”
More than 3,000 Nigerian humanitarian aid workers work in the north east.
