18, August 2017
Boko Haram pushing refugees from one hell into another 0
Boko Haram terrorists have stepped up attacks on vulnerable people including those living in camps in northeastern Nigeria pushing the displaced from “one hell into another,” a leading international aid agency says. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Friday that the terrorists were looking for softer targets, including camps hosting the displaced, following the intensification of offensive by the Nigerian military against the militants.
Latest data from the NRC showed that civilians were affected by violence on about 200 occasions last month – three times more than the total for June. It also indicated that at least 32 attacks were carried out on camps and sites for those uprooted by the conflict since July.
“Camps sheltering innocent families fleeing war should be places of refuge but instead they are turning into death traps,” the head of programs for NRC in Nigeria, Ernest Mutanga, said in a statement. “Armed groups in this conflict are pushing people from one hell into another,” he added.
Terrorists have killed and injured dozens of civilians in recent months in a spate of attacks on camps and areas sheltering the displaced that bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram. Eight years of militancy by Boko Haram has so far killed more than 20,000 people and forced more than 2.7 million to flee their homes.
Last year, the Nigerian army seized large swathes of territory from the terrorists; however, the militants have struck back with renewed zeal since June and killed at least 170 people and weakened the army’s control in the northeast. Many aid agencies, including the NRC, have been forced to temporarily suspend their aid work in Maidiguri, the capital of Borno state, due to threats from Boko Haram.
“We are worried that if these attacks continue, a very bad situation will grow even worse when it comes to aid access and delivery,” Jackie Okao, protection and advocacy adviser at the NRC in Nigeria, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
The United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) says about 5.2 million people are expected to need food aid by the end of this month – an increase of 500,000 from the start of 2017 – in a region threatened with famine. According to aid agencies, the situation could be far worse with many areas cut off from help due to the threat of Boko Haram and the arrival of the rainy season restricting access.
Culled from Presstv
19, August 2017
Drought leaves 8.5 million Ethiopians hungry 0
Livestock are dying in parts of Ethiopia that are overwhelmingly reliant on their milk as deepening drought pushes up the number of districts in need of life-saving aid by 19 percent, according to a report.
At least 8.5 million people in 228 districts of Ethiopia need urgent food aid in the second half of the year, up from 5.6 million in January, according to the study published on ReliefWeb, a website run by the United Nations.
Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region is one of the country’s worst affected zones and is home to a quarter of the country’s cases of severe acute malnutrition, UN agencies said.
Severe acute malnutrition is a condition that kills up to half of sufferers under five years old.
“The number of districts requiring immediate, life-saving intervention increased to levels not seen since the height of the El Niño drought impacts in 2016,” said the joint report, which was compiled by the UN and the Ethiopian government.
A strong aid response almost halved the number of Ethiopians needing food aid to 5.6 million since mid-2016. But the devastating drought was followed by poor spring rains this year in the southern and eastern parts of the country.
Since the end of last year, about 2 million animals have died in Somali region, which is home to many herding communities, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
“For livestock-dependent families, the animals can literally mean the difference between life and death, especially for children, pregnant and nursing women for whom milk is a crucial source of nutrition,” FAO said in a statement last week.
The UN agency is helping the worst hit communities to protect their remaining livestock with vaccinations, supplementary feed and water, and improved fodder production.
“It is crucial to provide this support between now and October – when rains are due – to begin the recovery process and prevent further losses of animals,” said Abdoul Karim Bah, FAO’s deputy representative in Ethiopia.
(Source: Reuters)