(New York, 19 March 2015) – United Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has approved US$28 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support life-saving relief work for people fleeing violence in Nigeria.
More than 1.2 million Nigerians have been driven from their homes as a result of Boko Haram-related violence which escalated dramatically since the start of 2015. Over 150,000 people have fled to neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, putting a further strain on some of the most vulnerable communities in the world.
“The insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria is having a devastating impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people,” said Valerie Amos, the Emergency Relief Coordinator. “This allocation from CERF will be used to support people in the most vulnerable communities who have been directly affected by the violence. It will provide urgently needed humanitarian relief including food, clean water, shelter, medicine, protection and security, particularly for women and children who are exposed to or have experienced violence and brutality.”
Given the urgent need to scale up humanitarian operations and assist those in need across affected countries, a regionally coordinated $28 million rapid-response allocation will go to relief agencies operating in Nigeria ($10 million), Cameroon ($7 million), Niger ($7 million) and Chad ($4 million). Like many places in the Sahel, most communities where the newly displaced have sought refuge already face food insecurity and malnutrition, and are prone to disease outbreaks and natural disasters. They often already host hundreds of thousands of refugees, returnees and migrants who have escaped violence and hardship throughout the region.
In 2014, CERF allocated more than $8.7 million to relief agencies responding to the regional impact of ongoing crisis in Nigeria. Almost $3.6 million went to life-saving relief, including the provision of clean water, health services and protection in Nigeria, and another $5.2 million allowed humanitarian partners to provide urgent food, shelter and medical support to refugees and host communities in Niger. CERF pools donor contribution in a single fund so that money is available to start or continue urgent relief work anywhere in the world. Since its inception in 2006, 125 UN Member States and dozens of private-sector donors and regional Governments have contributed $3.8 billion to the fund. CERF has allocated more than $3.7 billion in support of humanitarian operations in 88 countries and territories.
