A. Situation analysis
Description of the disaster
In Nigeria, the presidential and governorship elections were held successfully despite the postponements. The National Electoral Commission had confirmed that the elections, which had been scheduled for 14 February 2015; would be postponed by six weeks until 28 March 2015 for the Presidential elections, and 11 April 2015 for the Governorship elections. Despite the government’s assurances that the elections will be held on the rescheduled date, there were indications from some quarters that they (elections) be shifted ahead again, however this was resisted by the opposition and civil society groups. Many international organizations including the United Nations (UN) had predicted violence related to the elections; the situation remained tense, and continued to evolve as the major political parties carried on with their campaigns to canvass for vote. It is important to report that though there was violence in some states, generally, the elections were conducted in a peaceful manner and this was confirmed by international bodies that monitored the elections. The new government will be inaugurated on 29 May 2015 to take over from the current government.
According to reports, as of 3 March 2015, more than 100 people had been killed, and 300 injured in the north eastern, north central and north western areas of the country following the detonation by suicide bombers of improvised explosive devices (IED) in markets and motor parks - with a minimum of three of these incidents occurring per week.
The leader of the Boko Haram had uploaded a video on YouTube indicating that the militant group would impede the upcoming elections and though the joint military forces has seen progress in their fight against them, communities in the north east have continued to be invaded by insurgents. In the Niger Delta, militant groups that had been relatively inactive following the issue of an amnesty and the election of the current President (Dr. Goodluck Jonathan) had warned of violence if he was not re-elected. It was also reported that there had been movements of residents between the North and South with some going to their states of origin to vote while others were fleeing for fear of election violence in states other than theirs. The idea of the ruling party and other pressure groups to deploy the military during the elections was opposed by the main opposition party and the Federal Legislators. It has been based on information Emergency Plan of Action operation update Nigeria: Civil Unrest (Election Preparedness) contained in an audio tape released on Ekiti state elections held l in 2014 where the rigging of the governorship elections was linked to the deployment of the military.
On 24 December 2015, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) released CHF 239,946 from the Disaster Relief and Emergency Fund (DREF) to ensure that the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS) was prepared to meet the immediate needs of populations affected by election related violence if and when it should occur, with activities planned for a period of three months. On 10 March 2015, an Operations Update was issued to extend the timeframe by two months (New end date: 23 May 2015), following the decision of the National Electoral Commission to postpone the elections until 28 March 2015. An additional allocation of CHF 55,211 was also made to expand the activities planned into five (5) additional states (Benue, Gombe, Ebonyi, Ekiti and Niger).
This Operations Update is requesting an extension of timeframe of another one month; in order to carry out a DREF operational review/lessons learnt exercise. This has had to be postponed until the week commencing 14 June 2015 as the previous dates discussed coincided with the induction of new governance. The IFRC zone office and Nigeria country representation have developed a Terms of Reference; and team members have been identified from the IFRC zone emergency health, International Committee of Red Cross and potentially a representative from another West Coast National Society (Ghana Red Cross Society). The DREF operation will end on 23 June 2015, and a final report will be made available on 23 September 2015 (Three months after the end of the operation).
The major donors and partners of the DREF include the Red Cross Societies and governments of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the USA, as well as DG ECHO, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) the Medtronic, Zurich and Coca Cola Foundations and other corporate and private donors. Please refer to Operations Update n° 1 for progress on the activities carried out within this DREF operation.
