United Nations |
An international
donor conference in Oslo, Norway aiming to raise a chunk of the 1.4
billion euros the United Nations says it needs to address deepening food
insecurity in the region this year. Earlier this week the United
Nations said 1.4 million children were in danger of dying because of
famines in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.
More than seven
million people risk starvation in Nigeria's insurgency-hit northeastern
region and around Lake Chad, according to the UN.
There is little
doubt over the fact that the Boko Haram insurgency is one of the main
factors behind the crisis around the Lake Chad.
Yan St Pierre is a
counter-terrorism adviser who works for a group called Modern Security
in Berlin. He says that because of the Boko Haram militants, people have
been forced out of their homes into towns or camps for refugees and
cannot farm or fish, which increases pressure in the towns.
"Historically, it's
proven that tossing money isn't that effective," St Pierre told RFI.
"Real, practical solutions need to be found before this."
St Pierre explains
that the Nigerian government, first and foremost, needs to recognise
that their battle against Boko Haram will still last, will last a long
time, and to stop pretending that everything is alright and that the
areas have been secured.
"This is big
problem. So the first bigger step is to recognise that there is a
problem, that it is still there, that it is growing, and once that
recognition is there, then people can say 'well, okay, how can we find a
solution'. But as long as people are being ostriches and putting their
heads under the sand, it is going to be difficult and just tossing money
around, with all the graft and corruption in that region, it just makes
things more complicated."
Lanzer is hopeful the situation can improve even more since, he says, Boko Haram are on the backfoot.
"When we look at
the areas where people can move more freely this year, then, those have
expanded, and that's very good news, and we want to help people take
advantage of that so that they can tend to their livestock, so that they
can sow seeds in the fields to which they do have access." Lanzer says despite the good news he sees, issues remain.
"Security is still a
challenge, in particular to aid agencies, and the people of the region,
but if we were to compare today with a year ago, things have improved
in regards to stability, so that's good. And that's also enabled us to
better understand how grave the situation is and how badly people need
help but it's also given us this real sense of 'yes we can' attitude of
the communities themselves across the Lake Chad region."
Response versus preparedness
According to experts, steps need to be taken at the Oslo summit to change how donors approach crises like the one they face.
Challiss McDonough,
the Senior Regional Communications Officer East Africa for the World
Food Programme, says humanitarian workers have been warning for years
about famine in these areas, and that preparedness is key.
"We have been
warning about the fragility of the recovery in Somalia from the famine
of six years ago. We have been warning about the danger the conflict in
South Sudan could spiral down into famine, that's literally been
happening for the last two years and a half," she told RFI.
"We've managed to hold back crises at bay thus far with a powerful humanitarian response."
She says it is
possible to meet those humanitarian needs with a lot of dedication and
hard work and resources from the international community.
"But fundamentally,
the absence of peace and the absence of stability makes all of that
humanitarian effort essentially just a bandaid on a problem that
requires a much larger solution and a political solution, because
without that peace and stability, then, all of the humanitarian
assistance in the world isn't going to be able to address the causes of
why people are going hungry."
In South Sudan for example, Oxfam's main concern is the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reading.
"The readings that
came out earlier this week are shocking," Dorothy Sang, Humanitarian
Manager based in Juba, told RFI. "Not only because famine has now been
declared but also the high rates of areas in the country nearing on
famine."
Sang says that
crisis in South Sudan is man-made and stems from the lack of access that
goes hand-in-hand with complex emergencies.
Echoing this,
McDonough says the main thing is to stop vicious circles. What happens,
she says, is people's lives are disrupted by conflict and at the same
time that conflict affects the ability of aid agencies to help them.
"Fundamentally,
we've got humanitarian needs that are rising so quickly because of all
these different crises, in our very unstable world right now, that the
needs globally are just vastly outstripping the resources that are
available to meet them. The world has to has to have a very serious
conversation about how to change the way we deal with those crises, and
find some more sustainable solution for meeting those humanitarian needs
and also engage on the political side. I'm very encourage that this
conversation is happening in Oslo, but I think it's the beginning of a
process, and we can't give up on it after this."
And one might ask
if international donors are not a little late to the rescue here. It is
for some people, these experts say, but there are still an awful lot of
lives they say that can be saved.
McDonough says the
world has the resources to move very fast, in order to launch into the
work and committment that's needed to stabilise the crisis.
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