General News

ICRC calls for aid to save 9 million people from starvation in Lake Chad Basin

Date: Jun 10, 2016

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has called on international organisations to ramp up aid deliveries to save up to 9 million people from starvation in the Lake Chad Basin sub-region of North-West Africa.

In a statement sent to the African News Agency (ANA) on Friday, ICRC Southern Africa Head of Communications, Tendayi Sengwe, said hardly a day went by without a child dying of malnutrition in the region.

The dire conditions are blamed on a combination of drought and the effects of the counter-terrorism war being waged against regional militant group Boko Haram by the armies of Nigeria, Cameroun, Chad and Niger.

“More than 2.4 million people have fled their homes in four countries, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria, because of the conflict between government forces and armed opposition, which has lasted six years. The situation is now deteriorating further, especially in north-eastern Nigeria, and the ICRC is scaling up its humanitarian activities throughout the region,” the ICRC said.

According to ICRC Director of Operations, Dominik Stillhart, the continuing conflict is producing more Internally Displaced People (IDPs), with an exodus of more than 50,000 people reported from around the town of Diffa in Niger last week.

The town, which was re-captured by Boko Haram from the Niger Army last week, has become the latest flash-point, with Chad deploying 2,000 soldiers to reinforce its the assault over the past few days.

The ICRC said more people had been displaced in north eastern Nigeria over the past few weeks as fighting between government forces and tribal militants groups continue.

“Hundreds of displaced people are still arriving at different locations in search of shelter and food. In many cases, the evolving conflict across the region drives people to flee on multiple occasions, increasing hardship and making life extremely precarious. Most abandon their homes leaving everything behind, and lack the very basic necessities of life,” the ICRC said.

The ICRC said it was struggling to feed and shelter more than 300,000 people who had been displaced from Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger since January. At least 800 patients, most of them war-wounded, have received emergency life-saving treatment since January.

The ICRC also lamented worsening conditions in regional detention facilities, saying prison populations had increased with the detention of more people on allegations of having links to militant groups.

--ANA--

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