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High level emergency round-table on humanitarian
crisis in Borno state organized by AOA in June 2016; Dr Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija
(3rd left, beside Governor Kashim Shettima) speaking. Photo credit: Timmy
Elegbede
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The devastation wrought
by Boko Haram, which has left millions of people in northeast Nigeria on the
brink of famine, could exacerbate Europe's migration crisis if the world fails
to act urgently, the country's chief humanitarian coordinator said.
Thomson
Reuters Foundation report continues:
Nearly
five million people in the region are desperately hungry and risk starving to
death this year if they do not receive food aid, according to figures from the
United Nations.
This
could drive even more Nigerians to flee the country and attempt the perilous
journey to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, unless the international community
ramps up support and funds, said Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija, Nigeria's
humanitarian coordinator.
"With
so many people facing famine, this is the wrong time to criticize us and simply
say 'You are the giant of Africa'.
"The
world could see a mass exodus from a country of 180 million people if support
is not given, and fast ... if people facing famine fall into famine," she
told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in the Senegalese capital
of Dakar.
While
the European Union has been strained by the influx of 1.6 million refugees and
migrants between 2014 and 2016, a greater number of people in northeast
Nigeria, some 1.8 million, are displaced and unable or unwilling to go home,
Alakija added.
"For
Nigeria, this is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis of large magnitude. We,
and the wider world, were largely unprepared for it," she said, adding
that Nigeria was struggling to respond as it deals with its first recession in
25 years.
Jihadist
group Boko Haram's eight-year insurgency to carve out an Islamic state in
northeast Nigeria has killed at least 20,000 people and forced some two million
to flee their homes.
TACKLING
ROOT CAUSE
The
state's handling of the situation in northeast Nigeria has been hit by
allegations of officials stealing and selling aid, and having sex with women in
exchange for food.
Olatunbosun-Alakija said the Borno state government had taken measures to improve protection
efforts - such as having more female officials in camps for the displaced - and
tackle corruption.
"But
you need to put such incidents in the wider context of widespread suffering and
desperation," she said. "We need to tackle the root cause of the
crisis, not just these symptoms."
The
humanitarian response has also been fraught at times due to tensions between
the state and international aid agencies.
The
president's spokesman in December said aid agencies, including the United
Nations, were exaggerating levels of hunger to get more funding from donors,
while Borno's state governor in January said many of the groups were profiting
from the crisis.
"This
arose from a lack of understanding and the fact that Nigeria has never faced
this kind of situation before ... there is no denial of the scale of the crisis
within the country, but rather incredulity around what has been going on," Olatunbosun-Alakija said.
"For
the first six years of the insurgency, the previous government did not adequately
acknowledge or respond to it," she said. "It was not until (President
Muhammadu) Buhari came to power (in 2015) that Nigeria, and the world, woke up
and smelt the coffee."
With
Boko Haram's insurgency in its eighth year and showing little sign of ending,
many aid agencies are thinking beyond just emergency aid, and considering how
best to foster and improve long-term development and resilience-building
efforts.
"The government is tackling the crisis on several fronts, not just handing out food parcels," said Olatunbosun-Alakija. "We are focusing on rebuilding entire communities, so that people can go back to their homes, jobs, and resume their lives as normal."
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