IDP Camp |
People uprooted by
Boko Haram violence in the northeast are leaving host families and
moving to camps for the displaced as food becomes increasingly scarce,
the European Commission's humanitarian arm (ECHO) said wednesday.
Seven million
people do not have enough food to eat and almost one-third of them need
urgent food aid, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Nine in 10 of
Nigeria's 2.2 million internally displaced people are living with host
families in the northeast rather than in camps, amid food shortages that
are raising tension in many households, said Thomas Dehermann-Roy, head
of ECHO's Central Africa office.
"It is easier to
host your neighbours, friends and family when everything is fine, but
when food becomes scarce, tensions are raised," he said. Around
two-thirds of people uprooted by conflict and four in five host families
in northeast Nigeria said food was their most pressing and unfulfilled
need, according to ECHO.
"Some people are
moving to camps as the living situation with host families becomes too
harsh - it is a worrying trend and sign of a deteriorating situation,"
Dehermann-Roy added.
A regional
offensive by Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroun last year drove Boko
Haram from much of the territory it held in north eastern Nigeria,
undermining its six-year campaign to carve out an Islamic caliphate.
But the militants
have since struck back with suicide bombings and hit and run attacks on
civilians, threatening livelihoods and hindering aid agencies' efforts
to deliver food.
The amount of land
being used to grow food has dropped by almost 70 per cent over the past
year as the violence has disrupted farming and driven people off their
land, OCHA said.
Boko Haram
militants have been restrained from raising funds by selling livestock,
hence shutting down the cattle trade in Maiduguri, while the conflict
has stifled cross-border trade with neighbouring Cameroun, Chad and
Niger.
The government is
encouraging the displaced to return home, but the continuing arrival of
newly uprooted people in Maiduguri - the capital of worst-hit Borno
State - suggests that parts of the northeast are still unsafe, according
to ECHO.
"There is concern
that aid agencies may not be able to reach or provide assistance to
people who go back to insecure areas," said Dehermann-Roy. A lack of
food could drive people to desperate measures including selling their
possessions and trading sex for food, he added.
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