by Heather Murdock

ABUJA — Aid organization Doctors Without Borders says it has suspended emergency health care in Borno State, Nigeria, - the heart of an insurgency now under assault by government troops. The decision comes after five gunmen hijacked an aid vehicle on Saturday.

A couple of weeks ago, Doctors without Borders moved into Baga, a town where thousands of homes were burnt to the ground and hundreds of people were killed in April. Since then, the organization says it has been treating 80 patients a day, half of them children.

Nigerian authorities must not use the state of emergency imposed in the north of the country as an excuse to commit human rights violations, Amnesty International urged today as the military continued its assault on Islamist armed group Boko Haram.

Several people have reportedly been killed and hundreds arrested since a state of emergency was declared in the northern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe on 14 May. The military reportedly claim those targeted are suspected members of Boko Haram.

ECOWAS has called for more support from the UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) for effective implementation of the region’s gender, child and humanitarian policies.

The Vice President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Toga McIntosh told a visiting delegation led by the fund’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa Mr. Benot Kalasa, that the organization "is desirous of working with you in this area and facilitating project implementation and coordination for greater impact."

FAITS SAILLANTS

• Les premières réponses d’urgence s’organisent face à l’afflux de populations fuyant les violences au nord-Nigeria.

• L’épidémie de choléra semble se stabiliser, aucun nouveau cas n’a été enregistré ces derniers jours.

• La récurrence des crises alimentaires pousse de plus en plus de femmes et d’enfants des zones rurales à migrer vers la ville.

Testimony, Donald Y. Yamamoto
Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs
Opening Statement
Washington, DC
May 21, 2013

[Before the House Subcommittees on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights; International Organizations; Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade; Middle East and North Africa]

05/22/2013 11:53 GMT

Par REINNIER KAZÉ

MAINARI (Cameroun), 22 mai 2013 (AFP) - "Nous n'avons rien pris en partant, même pas un seul drap. (...) Nous n'avons plus rien", raconte Aoudou, assis sur une natte posée à même le sol. Ce Nigérian a fui son pays la semaine dernière avec sa femme et ses quinze enfants, pour rejoindre le village camerounais de Maïnari (extrême-nord), frontalier du Nigeria.

KANO, 22 May 2013 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of residents of northeastern Nigeria's Borno State have fled their homes - thousands of them into neighbouring Niger and Cameroon - following airstrikes by Nigerian fighter jets on Boko Haram (BH) camps from 15 May.

The attacks on BH camps in northern parts of Borno close to the borders with Chad, Niger and Cameroon followed the 14 May declaration of a state of emergency by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in the northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.

21-05-2013 Communiqué de presse

Genève / Niamey (CICR) – Plusieurs centaines de familles fuyant la violence qui sévit au nord du Nigéria ont trouvé refuge dans la région de Diffa, dans le sud-est du Niger, et bénéficient d'une assistance d'urgence en vivres et en biens de première nécessité organisée par le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR) et la Croix-Rouge nigérienne.