Nigeria Absent At UN Fund Raising For Boko Haram Displaced People

The United Nations, Chad, Niger and

Cameroon appealed on Friday for help for

millions of people in the Lake Chad Basin

region forced to flee the violence of Boko

Haram and hit with repeated droughts

and floods that have brought malnutrition

and disease.

But while the radical Islamist militants

operate out of Nigeria and U.N. aid chief

Stephen O’Brien said that is where most

people have been displaced by their

attacks, Nigeria did not send anyone to

the United Nations event.

U.S. and European Union diplomats said

they were disappointed that Nigeria did

not attend the event chaired by O’Brien

on the sidelines of the U.N. General

Assembly.

The Nigerian U.N. mission was not

immediately available to comment on its

absence.

A regional offensive by Nigeria, Niger,

Chad and Cameroon earlier this year

drove Boko Haram from much of the

territory it held in northern Nigeria. But

the militants have since struck back with

a renewed wave of deadly raids and

suicide bombings.

“These (displaced) families are being

used as ammunition because it is the

children that are used as bombers in

markets and in train stations,” said

Chad’s Foreign Minister Moussa Faki

Mahamat. “Trade is virtually wiped out in

this area.”

Several U.N. diplomats at the event

warned that the aid emergency in Lake

Chad Basin risked being forgotten amid

other humanitarian crises in Syria,

Yemen and South Sudan.

Niger Prime Minister Brigi Rafini said the

region was in the midst of a “genuine

disaster.”

“We need massive assistance from the

international community,” he said. “It is

the population that has shared with these

refugees and displaced people the little

they have while they themselves are

living in extremely vulnerable situations.”

The United Nations said some 2.3 million

people have been forced from their

homes since May 2013, and a quarter of a

million of them have fled from Nigeria

into Cameroon, Chad and Niger, many

walking hundreds of miles.

“Droughts and floods hit the region

repeatedly. Malnutrition and disease

outbreaks hover at emergency levels.

Some 5.5 million people do not have

enough to eat,” O’Brien said. “The

emergence of Boko Haram has pushed

them over the edge.”

O’Brien said U.N. appeals for 2015 to help

those displaced people and refugees in

Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger were

all less than half-funded.

The United States on Friday announced

$6.8 million (£4.48 million) in funding for

regional aid efforts.