West and Central Africa: Weekly Regional Humanitarian Snapshot (27 March - 2 April 2018)

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

FRESH VIOLENCE UPROOTS AT LEAST 500 PEOPLE

At least 500 people uprooted by the recent armed clashes in Tagbara village in the eastern Ouaka prefecture have gathered around the local UN peacekeepers’ base. Nearly all their houses were burned down during the attack. A nearby clinic where several wounded people have sought help has run out of medicines, and tensions remain high in the area.

MALI

IED EXPLOSIONS KILL SEVEN CIVILIANS

Seven civilians were killed in separate IED explosions in two localities in the central Mopti region. Three civilians transporting livestock and other goods died on 26 March when their vehicle hit an explosive device. Two days later four others were killed and one injured by a road-planted IED. Since January, more than 25 IED incidents have been recorded in Mopti region, surpassing the 22 incidents recorded in the region in the whole of 2017. Separately in Gao, armed individuals on 25 March robbed two vehicles belonging to an NGO. No injuries were reported. This brings to nearly 50 the number of insecurity incidents against humanitarians in Mali since the beginning of 2018.

NIGER

MORE THAN 40,000 TREATED FOR MALNUTRITION

Since January, some 40,500 under 5 children have been treated for severe acute malnutrition, including 5,000 with medical complications, and around 36,700 children with moderate acute malnutrition received therapeutic treatment. The figures are slightly lower than those recorded in the same period in 2017. Across the country an estimated 380,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and nearly 500,000 are moderately malnourished.

NIGERIA

FIVE KILLED IN IDP CAMP FIRE

At least five people, three women and two children, were killed on 26 March in a fire outbreak in a camp for the displaced in Rann town in Borno state. The fire, whose cause is yet to be established, also destroyed more than 200 shelters and killed livestock. Close to 80,000 people currently live in Rann. The camp has limited humanitarian presence since the 1 March attack in which three aid workers were killed and another three were abducted. At least five fire accidents in displacement camps have been reported in recent weeks in north-east Nigeria.

OVER 1,600 SUSPECTED LASSA FEVER CASES REPORTED

Eighteen Lassa fever cases and six deaths were ported in the week that ended on 25 March, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reported. Since the start of 2018 to 25 March, 1,613 suspected cases, of which 394 confirmed, have been reported. There have been 134 deaths, 95 of which were confirmed to be Lassa fever. Nineteen states have recorded at least one confirmed case in the outbreak in which 17 healthcare workers have also been affected. Partners led by WHO continue to support Government response in the affected states through the establishment of emergency operation centres, surveillance, contact tracing, strengthening of diagnostic capacity and risk communication.