Le Niger accueille des personnes forcées de fuir les violences perpétrées par des groupes armés dans le nord-est du Mali depuis 2012 et dans la région du bassin du Lac Tchad depuis 2013. Les conditions de vie de ces personnes sont souvent précaires et requièrent une assistance humanitaire ainsi que des solutions durables pour leur insertion socio-économique dans les zones d’accueil. Les personnes déplacées en provenance du Nigéria et les personnes déplacées internes sont localisées dans la région de Diffa tandis que les réfugiés maliens sont installés dans les régions de Tahoua et de Tillabéry.

The security situation in south-eastern Niger continues to deteriorate due to repeated attacks by Boko Haram. Since the first Boko Haram attack on the Nigerien territory in February 2015 to date, several other incursions have been reported in the region.
These attacks have caused the displacement of thousands of people. As a consequence, the humanitarian needs in the region have increased, in a context characterized by limited resources for an adequate response and by localized access challenges.

WHO: Mr. Peter Lundberg, Humanitarian Coordinator (a.i)/Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria.

WHAT: Press briefing on the current humanitarian situation in Nigeria’s northeast region

WHEN: Tuesday 15 November 2016

TIME: 10:00 AM prompt

WHERE: UNOCHA Office - 15 Mississippi Street, Maitama, Abuja

The Humanitarian Coordinator (a.i) for Nigeria will brief the press on the current humanitarian situation in Nigeria’s northeast region, focusing on the emerging realities and response activities of the humanitarian community.

The briefing will feature a Q&A session to field questions on the key issues relating to humanitarian crisis and response in the region.

For more information, please contact OCHA Nigeria Órla Fagan: +234 903 78 100 95, fagano@un.org

Interview with Helle Poulsen-Dobbyns, MSF programme coordinator in Maiduguri

Helle Poulsen-Dobbyns has just returned from Maiduguri – the capital of Borno State in northeastern Nigeria– where she was programme coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). She explains how malnourished children were flooding into MSFmedical facilities in a region affected by the conflict between Boko Haram and the Nigerian army.

What is the situation in Maiduguri?

Our teams were confronted with huge numbers of acutely malnourished children and an increasing number of malaria cases. We didn’t expect this in the capital, where there is no conflict and aid organisations do have access to the population.

In some locations, malnutrition rates were as high as those recorded in the conflict zones. We had lots of both manifestations of severe acute malnutrition: severe marasmus, or wasting, and kids with Kwashiorkor (swellings of fluid, known as oedema, occurring on the child’s ankles, feet and belly ), but so bad that their skin developed boil-like eruptions, as if they had suffered burns. When we conducted food distribution in a camp, it was the first food these 8,000 people had received in four months.

What were the main difficulties?

Our triage was overwhelmed by the number of children under five years of age; they are the most vulnerable. But we also experienced the deaths of too many older children. They were victims of the effect of severe malaria on bodies already weakened by malnutrition, and were not able to fight off disease. That’s why I kept telling the team “it’s all about food”.

To have a targeted impact, we established criteria for who should receive the food. For example, for children discharged from the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre (ITFC), we give their mothers a family ration of one month’s food supply so that that their children wouldn’t succumb to severe acute malnutrition again. We also do a targeted food distribution to families with six or more children and with at least one child under five. This is not replacing the food distribution that would be needed for the internally displaced people living in camps or in the community. To complicate things, 90 per cent of the displaced people are hosted by communities in Maiduguri in poor conditions, with inadequate sanitation and hygiene. It’s making it harder to reach them and such conditions are like an incubator, spreading disease.

How is MSF responding to the emergency?

To deal with the influx of patients, we first increased our capacity to manage them by recruiting new staff, who are trained by our existing staff while receiving and treating a huge number of new emergency cases.

Then we worked on the management of our medical facilities. For example, in our Maimusari clinic, we have nurses triaging within the patient queues, to ensure prompt identification, which would then allow us to give the necessary care to the most severe cases: the children were so sick we would otherwise have risked them dying while waiting to be seen.

We maintain a comprehensive intervention in the camps in Maiduguri and outside through a four-day distribution campaign of food and non-food items like mosquito nets, jerry cans, mats, blankets and soap. We ran a mobile clinic simultaneously, doing medical screening as well as treating systematically, and giving preventive treatment like measles vaccination and seasonal malaria prophylaxis.

What are your main concerns for the future?

The rainy season has been short, with little rains, so it created the optimum conditions for mosquitos to develop in small water pools. When the hot season comes, the whole population will still be weakened by malnutrition as well as exposed to the massive risk of malaria, exacerbated by the crowded conditions.

People have missed the rain and therefore the planting season. Their villages have been destroyed, livestock stolen, fields and crops looted and torched. They will need as much, if not more, support in the Maiduguri camps and community.

There are some people returning and some businesses and shop merchants bring a sense of normalcy, but this crisis is still unfolding. And, there must be a comprehensive and collaborative approach, including food distribution by aid agencies and authorities.

Highlights

• WFP Country Director for Nigeria was accredited by the Government and arrived in country on 31 October.

• WFP and UNICEF are in the process of rolling out rapid response mechanisms to deliver a holistic package of essential food, health and nutrition services in difficult to reach areas.

• The Emergency Telecommunications (ET) Sector was activated on 17 October by the Humanitarian Country Team.

Operational Updates

• WFP is scaling up its operations: increasing in-kind assistance, exploring wet-feeding programmes for specific areas of Maiduguri, and e-money delivery mechanisms. In addition, jointly with UNICEF, preparations are ongoing to deploy rapid response teams and security risks assessments are ongoing in the initially identified areas (Gubio, Magumeri, Gajiram, Ngala, Marte and Baga), where no assistance has been provided so far due to access issues but which have now become relatively secure.

• WFP will adopt a three-pronged scale up approach by segmenting the area into a) deep field location (insecure Local Government Areas (LGAs) with greatest needs), b) Maiduguri and Damaturu, which have more stable conditions, and c) return areas (more secure LGAs involved in the return process).

• The latest Cadre Harmonisé analysis was conducted in Abuja, covering for the first time 16 states in north Nigeria. The situation is extremely worrisome, but has not changed drastically compared to August 2016. A deterioration is expected in the coming months. The epicentre of the crisis remains in Borno and Yobe States, where insecurity and lack of access to land are the key drivers for extremely poor cereal production. Around 4.6 million people are estimated to be food-insecure in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States, 55,000 of which are in extreme food insecurity (Phase 5) and 1.8 million in emergency situation (Phase 4), requiring immediate food assistance.

Challenges

• Security restrictions and limited access are the main constraints for in-kind food distributions, including Plumpy'Sup. These constraints limit the number of humanitarian organizations in the area which can potentially partner with WFP.

• Despite these limitations, WFP has established partnerships with five NGOs in Borno State for in-kind food assistance and Blanket Supplementary Feeding. WFP is also bringing forward discussions with three NGOs in Yobe State to engage in partnerships.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan T.D. and Minister of State for the Diaspora and International Development, Joe McHugh T.D. have announced that the Government is to release €3.9 million of humanitarian funding in response to ongoing severe crises in the Central African Republic, Chad and Niger.

The Central and West Africa region is known for its serious humanitarian issues; driven by conflict and chronic food insecurity. These issues have been compounded in recent times by the broader security crisis caused by the Boko Haram militant group, which has spilled into a number of countries. 9.1 million people are currently in need of urgent humanitarian assistance in three countries affected by conflict, displacement and food insecurity: the Central African Republic, Chad and Niger.

Minister Flanagan stated:

“I am pleased to announce this further funding, which brings Ireland’s humanitarian support to Central and West Africa to over €16 million in 2016. Drought, floods and epidemics have become an all too familiar fact of life across the region, which has also seen the displacement of millions forced to flee from conflict.

This funding reaffirms Ireland’s commitment, along with our longstanding UN partners, to the continued funding support for crises which may have been forgotten by others.”

The Irish Government has a specific policy commitment to target crises which do not receive global attention and which are significantly under-funded. In the case of the crises in the Central African Republic and its neighbouring countries; and in Chad and Niger; funding provided will ensure that refugees and displaced families have access to basic services and are protected.

Minister McHugh added:

“The humanitarian situation across Central and West Africa is particularly serious, with a total of 20 million people in need of assistance across the region.

This funding will aid Ireland’s experienced UN partners in their response for people in need, including immediate humanitarian assistance, protection, and livelihood support to vulnerable refugees, the provision of life-saving nutrition support to women and children affected by severe malnutrition, as well as livelihood support for the displaced, to assist in rebuilding their lives."

ENDS Press Office 11 November 2016

Notes to Editor:

Irish Aid is the Government’s overseas assistance programme. It is managed by the Development Cooperation Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. For further information visit www.irishaid.ie

Ireland’s Humanitarian Assistance Policy outlines how Irish Aid saves and protects lives, alleviates suffering and maintains human dignity before, during and in the aftermath of humanitarian crises.

Of the funding announced, Ireland will provide €2,000,000 to the UNHCR for a regional refugee response programme for refugees affected by the conflict in the Central African Republic who have fled to neighbouring countries. The announcement also includes €500,000 which will be provided to UNHCR for refugees in Chad and €1,400,000 to UNICEF for provision of nutrition and protection services for children and women in Niger.

To date in 2016, Ireland has provided over €12 million to NGO partners, the Red Cross Movement, and UN agencies for their response to crises in the region, in addition to over €14 million in support provided in 2015.

So far in 2016, this support to the region has included over €4.8 million provided to partners for programmes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; over €4 million for programmes in the Central African Republic; €2.3 million for Nigeria, €770,000 for Niger, and nearly €250,000 for Mali.

Ireland has a specific policy commitment to target crises which do not receive global attention, and funding is granted to partners who are well placed to respond to the particular needs of each context but which are significantly under-funded.

As part of Ireland’s Rapid Response Initiative, Irish Aid maintains a roster of highly skilled and experienced individuals who are willing to deploy at short notice to assist in emergency relief and humanitarian efforts. To date in 2016, 36 rapid responders have been deployed into crisis and emergency situations around the world.

In 2016, two rapid responders were deployed to the World Food Programme’s humanitarian operations in Nigeria to provide support in logistics and engineering, and two were deployed to UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also in Nigeria to provide much-needed support in the information management and gender response areas.

In Numbers

• 1.67 million internally displaced people (OCHA est.)

• 1,160,621 South Sudanese refugees (UNHCR est.)

• 204,918 people seeking shelter with the UN (UNMISS est.)

• 3.6 million people facing acute food insecurity (WFP estimates, Oct—Dec)

Highlights

• South Sudan is facing the highest levels of food insecurity during this lean season, with 3.6 million people estimated to be highly food insecure based on internal food and nutrition security analysis. Needs are expected to increase further in the first quarter of next year, with likely 4.6 million people in need of assistance. WFP is scaling up its response to the declining food and nutrition security situation in the country, reaching over 3.4 million people so far this year and aiming to reach 4.1 million people by mid-2017.

• WFP mobile teams recently concluded distributions of one month food rations to approximately 50,000 people in Yei who have been affected by fighting and insecurity. A multi-agency humanitarian convoy led by WFP arrived in Yei on 28 October loaded with food from WFP, along with non-food items from UNICEF and UNHCR. Distributions of assistance were conducted over several days, allowing people to come to the distribution points when they felt safe to do so.

• WFP is launching a Special Operation for the rehabilitation of the road from Kosti, White Nile State (Sudan) to Renk, Upper Nile (South Sudan). The northern corridor to Renk is critical for the delivery of life-saving food assistance into South Sudan. The US$ 2.5 million project, which will be managed by WFP Sudan in close coordination with WFP South Sudan, is expected to be approved in the coming

The President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, held meetings with Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba of Burkina Faso in Abidjan on Friday, where he promised to support the country's national development plan.

Burkina Faso's National Plan for Economic and Social Development (PNDES) 2016-2020, focuses on the structural transformation of the country's economy and the welfare of its people

"Burkina Faso has immense potential in agriculture. We have to focus on agriculture as a business. It is at the heart macro-economic stability," Adesina said during the meeting with the Prime Minister, his delegation and senior Bank officials.

He advised on the need to focus on agriculture, energy and road corridors to open up the land-locked country and attract the private sector to develop agro-poles and agricultural value chains. This will make it possible to transform livestock products such as milk and butter and cotton to textile, thereby creating gainful employment and booting the economy.

President Adesina also mulled the possibility seeking support from partners to finance a robust programme for Sahelian countries beset by a wide range of problems related to security, unemployment and environmental degradation.

He urged the setting up of an agri-business Bank rather than and agricultural Bank to leverage the country's huge potential in the sector to finance value chain development and scale up production of agro-industrial goods.

Earlier, Prime Minister Thieba highlighted the core focus of PNDES as a framework which provides guidance for the economic and social development of Burkina Faso for the period 2016-2020. He said it was based on the Presidential programme, the 2025 vision for Burkina and a global plan for sustainable development.

The plan focuses on political and economic governance aimed at reforming and modernizing public administration and institution, human capital development, boosting viable economic sectors, such as agriculture and livestock farming through the development of value chains for jobs creation, to the tune of 50,000 productive jobs per year.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister, Alpha Barry, the Economy, Finance and Development Minister, Hadzatou Rosine Coulibaly, and the Executive Director for Burkina Faso at the Bank, Martine Mabiala, among other top government officials.

Bank officials at the meeting included the Secretary-General, Vincent Nmehielle, Sibry Tapsoba of the Transition Support Department, Kodeidja Diallo of the Private Sector Department and Kapil Kapoor, of the Financial Sector Development Policy And Strategy Department, among others.

The AfDB began operations in Burkina Faso in 1972. Its current portfolio in the country comprises 15 projects and programmes worth US $468.21 million (UA 340.80 million).

Contact

Felix Njoku

by Reuters
Saturday, 12 November 2016 13:27 GMT

• Surrenders follow loss of territory in Nigeria

• Military task force says 240 ex-fighters in detention

• Detainees may have been recruited by force

By Emma Farge

DAKAR, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Boko Haram fighters and their families have surrendered in Chad in the past month, security and U.N. sources said, in a sign the military campaign against them is making headway.

Read more on the Thomson Reuters Foundation

By Yusuf Ismail

With the assistance of UNICEF and partners, over 88,000 children have access to safe learning spaces in north-east Nigeria and almost 155,000 children have been reached with learning materials. One of these learning spaces is in a camp for Internally Displaced People (IDP) and Yusuf Ismail oulines his experience helping children and teachers learn in this camp school.

As part of my role at UNICEF in northeast Nigeria, I help set up safe learning spaces where normal school lessons aren’t available.

Back in September for example, UNICEF built eight temporary classrooms in an IDP camp in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. Thousands of children live in the camp and many hadn’t been to school in years, since they were forced to leave their homes due to the conflict. On top of that, the majority of schools in the state were closed because of the fighting and not all of them have reopened.

The response to the school in the camp has been amazing. If you come to the camp in the morning you will see children drop what they are doing and run to the school gates when it is time for school to start. In just 6 weeks, we had more than 1500 children enroll here. Now I think they like coming to school more than I do!

You know some of these children have been held by Boko Haram for several months. They are traumatised. Some of them even saw their parents being killed. So, alongside basic maths and English lessons, we engage them in psycho-social and recreational activities, as a way to help them deal with the trauma. There’s also a safe space for the children to play. We put in swings and slides and there are skipping ropes and footballs — using play and games to also help children recover.

You can see them recovering in front of you. And when I see that, it makes me so happy to have made that kind of impact on someone’s life.

Yusuf Ismail is a UNICEF Education Specialist in Nigeria

A 75 km de Bamako, à Kéniéroba, des détenus des centres pénitentiaires de la région cultivent eux-mêmes 30 hectares de terres agricoles. Ce projet de champ pénitentiaire contribue à améliorer l'alimentation des détenus et leurs conditions de détention et facilite également leur réinsertion future dans la société.

Le CICR, en partenariat avec le ministère de la Justice du Mali, apporte depuis deux ans un soutien technique et financier à ce projet. Sous la supervision des agronomes du CICR et grâce à la donation de semences, d'engrais, d'herbicides et de matériel agricole, les 30 hectares de terre produisent désormais du maïs, des haricots niébés et des arachides.

Millions of people in Nigeria’s north-east were displaced due to Boko Haram violence, now in its seventh year. More than 1 million people moved within the most affected areas in Borno state, while others fled further afield seeking a better life and safety from conflict. The National Emergency Management Agency is now establishing camps to help provide that safety.

Mohammed Yatua sits outside his shelter in Malkoi camp for displaced people, located on the outskirts of Yola. More than 1,500 people have set up home in the camp, which is managed by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and was once the grounds of a school.

Mohammed is making a mat from grass he collected around the camp. It takes him two weeks to weave, and he receives ₦1,000 (US$3). “We’re here two months now, and there is a demand for mats, so I sell them to others in the camp,” he said.

Like thousands of others, Mohammed, his family and friends were driven from their home in Gwoza when the violence became too intense. When Boko Haram attacked remote villages, homes were razed and infrastructure, crops and animals were destroyed. Those left behind either had to join the rebels or were killed. Those lucky enough to escape left their homes with just the clothes on their back.

Read the full article here

The ongoing conflict between Boko Haram and the Nigerian military has had a devastating impact on the people on northeasterm Nigeria's Borno State. In several locations, people seeking safety from the violence are entirely dependent on outside aid, which is not reaching them. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) program coordinator Helle Poulsen-Dobbyns recently returned from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. Here, she explains MSF's response to malnutrition in the region.

What is the situation in Maiduguri?

Our teams were confronted with huge numbers of acutely malnourished children and an increasing number of malaria cases. We didn’t expect this in the capital, where there is no conflict, and aid organizations do have access to the population.

In some locations malnutrition rates were as high as those recorded in the conflict zones. We had lots of both manifestations of severe marasmus, or wasting, and kids with kwashiorkor [a form of severe malnutrition where children present with edema on their ankles, feet, and belly], but so bad that their skin developed boil-like eruptions, as if they had suffered burns. When we conducted a food distribution in a camp, it was the first food these 8,000 people had received in four months. What were the main difficulties?

Our triage was overwhelmed by the number of children under five years old. They are the most vulnerable. But we also experienced the deaths of too many older children. They were victims of the effect of severe malaria on bodies already weakened by malnutrition, and were not able to fight off disease. That’s why I kept telling the team, “It’s all about food.”

To have a targeted impact we established criteria for who should receive the food. For example, for children discharged from the inpatient therapeutic feeding center (ITFC), we give their mothers a family ration of one-month’s food supply so that their children wouldn’t succumb to severe malnutrition again. We also do a targeted food distribution to families with six or more children and with at least one child under five. This is not replacing the food distribution that would be needed for the internally displaced people living in camps or in the community. To complicate things, 90 percent of the displaced people are hosted by communities in Maiduguri in poor living conditions [with] inadequate sanitation and hygiene. It’s making it harder to reach to them. Such conditions are like an incubator, spreading disease.

How is MSF responding to the emergency?

To deal with the influx of patients we first increased our capacity to manage them by recruiting new staff who are trained by our existing staff while they receive and treat a huge number of new emergency cases.

Then we worked on the management of our medical facilities. For example, in our Maimusari clinic, we have nurses training within the patient queues to ensure prompt identification, which would then allow us to give the necessary care to the most severe cases. The children were so sick we would otherwise have risked them dying while waiting to be seen.

We maintain a comprehensive intervention in the camps in Maiduguri and outside through a four-day distribution campaign of food and non-food items like mosquito nets, jerry cans, mats, blankets, and soap. We ran a mobile clinic simultaneously, doing medical screenings as well as treating systematically, and giving preventive treatment like measles vaccination and seasonal malaria prophylaxis.

What are your main concerns for the future?

The rainy season has been short, with little rain, so it created the optimum conditions for mosquitos to develop in small water pools. When the hot season comes, the whole population will still be weakened by malnutrition as well as exposed to the massive risk of malaria, exacerbated by the crowded conditions.

People have missed the rain and therefore the planting season. Their villages have been destroyed, livestock stolen, fields and crops looted and torched. They will need as much, if not more, support in the Maiduguri camps and community.

There are some people returning, some businesses and shops merchants bring a sense of normalcy.

But, this crisis is still unfolding. And, there must be a comprehensive and collaborative approach including food distribution by aid agencies and authorities.

MSF runs three projects in Maiduguri. In Gwange a 102-bed ITFC hospital tends to children with SAM and other complications. In Maimusari an inpatient/outpatient department provides care to malnourished children in their community with an Ambulatory Therapeutic Feeding Centre (ATFC). MSF also provides safe delivery care. Emergency obstetrics care for mothers and their newborns whose lives are most at risk around the time of birth. In Bolori, MSF provides general health services and nutrition care in an outpatient department and ATFC, as well as emergency obstetrics.

Highlights

• With UNICEF’s support, nearly 370,000 children have been vaccinated against measles in 2016. A mass measles vaccination (integrated with Vitamin A supplementation and screening for malnutrition) is underway in 16 IDP camps in MMC and Jere targeting 70,565 children (6 months-15 years).

• Over 117,000 children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) have been admitted to therapeutic feeding programmes in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

• More than 702,000 people (64 per cent of target) have been reached with hygiene promotion/NFI distribution. During this week, 85,797 people were reached with hygiene promotion along with a cholera awareness campaign through house to house visits.

• With UNICEF’s support, 12 semi-permanent structures are under construction in Mafa LGA to enable resumption of schooling for 600 conflict affected children.

• Psychosocial support has benefitted 168,603 children including through CFS based recreational activities for vulnerable, unaccompanied and separated children, and children associated with armed forces/group.

Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs

According to IOM’s Round XII of Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM)1 Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states are most affected by the conflict with highest numbers of both IDPs and returnees in need of critical life- saving humanitarian assistance. Borno state remains the epicentre of crisis with more than 1.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Borno, followed by 170,070 in Adamawa and 124,706 in Yobe states. 55 per cent of the displaced population are children. Most of the IDPs, (over 78 per cent) are staying with host families, while less than 22 per cent are staying in official and unofficial camps. Compared to the last rounds of assessments, Round XII shows an overall decrease of 61,173 people to 1,822,541 IDPs, in the six states (Adamawa, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba). 88% of this decrease happened in Borno state.

Humanitarian activities, including integrated measles vaccination campaign has resumed in 16 IDP camps/sites in MMC and Jere. There was temporary suspension last week due to a suicide attack at the entrance of Bakassi camp and reports of possible attacks in other camps.

After five measles cases were reported from Hausari and Bulabulin wards in Gwoza LGA, UNICEF, WHO & MSF teams are supporting the Government to commence response vaccination in these areas. The campaign preparation is ongoing to reach 46,249 eligible children (6 month-15 years) in the wards.

During the reporting week, UNICEF’s multi sectoral teams completed monitoring/assessment missions to Monguno, Mafa and Banki, visiting major camps, host communities accommodating IDPs, and meeting Government and other humanitarian partners. In Monguno, UNICEF team visited seven IDP camps/camp like sites. There is a need to urgently expand sanitation, hygiene promotion and NFI distribution, which is taken as matter of priority for coming weeks. Nutrition Team focused on the on-going Blanket Supplementary Food Distribution Programme (BSFP) for the pregnant and lactating women (PLW) with support from UNICEF partner, ACF. There is a need to rationalise the Voluntary Community Mobiliser (VCM) network to strengthen overall social mobilisation, better engage with community leaders/influencers and to strengthen routine immunization and ante-natal care. Advocacy efforts also required for opening/making Government health facilities functional.

In Numbers

1.8 m people displaced, of which 1.3 million in Borno and 0.13 million in Yobe States (IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix, October 2016)

1.8 m people food insecure in Borno and Yobe States Phases 4 & 5, Cadre Harmonisé, October 2016

Highlights

• WFP and UNICEF are rolling out rapid response mechanisms to deliver a holistic package of food, health and nutrition services in difficult to reach areas in Borno and Yobe States. The first teams will start to be deployed on 18 November.

• The Emergency Telecommunications Sector was officially activated on 17 October by the Humanitarian Country Team.

• WFP engaged in partnerships with five Non-Governmental Organizations to implement its in-kind and nutritious food assistance activities in Borno State.

Situation Update

• The October 2016 Cadre Harmonisé, covering 16 states in north Nigeria, indicates an extremely worrisome food security and nutrition situation, which however has not changed drastically compared to the August 2016 Cadre Harmonisé results.

• The epicentre of the crisis remains in Borno and Yobe States, where 4.6 million people are estimated to be food insecure (phase 3-5), with 55,000 in extreme food insecurity (Phase 5).

• Insecurity and lack of land access are the key drivers for extremely poor cereal production. Deteriorating food access is also becoming an additional burden to most households in the conflict zones.

HIGHLIGHTS

• In the first half of October, close to 50,000 South Sudanese arrivals have sought asylum in countries in the region. Over 320,000 new arrivals have been recorded since 8 July, 2016. Uganda continues to receive the highest number of new arrivals, followed by Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of Congo.

• UNHCR financial requirements for the South Sudan situation remain only 24% funded. In multiple locations, ongoing assistance has been put on hold to redirect resources and ensure life-saving assistance to the new arrivals.

Latest developments

• UNHCR identifies thousands of vulnerable displaced at UN House in Juba ‐ UNHCR identified 1,230 persons with specific needs in POC 3 and another 480 in POC 1, mainly elderly at risk, single mothers, widows, lactating mothers and patients with medical complications, in an assessment to ensure targeted assistance.

• President Kiir orders implementation of UNSC resolution 2304 and establishes humanitarian committee - President Salva Kiir issued republican decree 24/2016 on 15 October, instructing the Ministerial Committee of the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU) to execute UN Security Council resolution 2304/2016 (Regional Protection Force) within 14 days. President Kiir has also ordered the establishment of a Humanitarian Oversight Committee to supervise and facilitate humanitarian access and delivery of assistance.

• UN delegation visits South Sudan to help review UNMISS mandate ‐ Assistant Secretary‐General for Peacekeeping Operations, El Ghassim Wane, led a strategic UN assessment mission to South Sudan from 1 to 5 October, tasked with making recommendations as to how the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) can adapt to the situation on the ground and to increase the efficiency of the implementation of its mandate. During his visit, he met with UNHCR and other agencies, and with IDP representatives in Juba, Wau, Malakal and Bentiu.

Achievements and Impact

• Yei displaced seek humanitarian assistance in Juba ‐ Some 57 Sudanese refugees previously based in Yei and Lasu settlement approached UNHCR in Juba seeking humanitarian assistance and support for relocation to refugee camps in northern Unity. UNHCR is screening them as a prerequisite to consideration of relocation. IDP representatives report nearly 800 families have recently arrived from Yei using commercial flights and military convoys and are staying with relatives and friends in residential areas within Juba. Many have approached community leaders at Mahad IDP site in Juba to enquire about humanitarian assistance.

• Relocation of Yida refugees continues ‐ Some 613 refugees have relocated from Yida to the new refugee camp at Pamir since the camp opened on 1 September 2016.