Lake Chad Basin: Crisis Update No. 12 (6 February 2017)

Regional Highlights

• On 17 January, a Nigerian military jet accidentally bombs an IDP site in Rann locality, Borno state, killing at least 112 civilians, including six Nigerian Red Cross workers, and wounding 100.

• The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Cameroon reaches 191,908 in the country’s Far North, more than doubling since 2015.

• Humanitarian organizations provide food assistance to more than 1 million people in January. In 2017, some 5.1 people are projected to face emergency and crisis levels of food insecurity.

• In 2016, almost 215,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) were admitted for treatment across the region. Malnutrition rates remain high, with 515,000 children expected to suffer from SAM in 2017.

• A measles vaccination campaign targeting over 4 million children is underway in north-east Nigeria.

• The European Commission releases €40 million in additional humanitarian aid to support the populations in the Lake Chad region.

• The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) releases US$42 million to assist over 3 million people in Nigeria (US$22 million), Cameroon (US$10 million), and Niger (US$10 million).

• On 24 February, a humanitarian conference on Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region will take place in Oslo, hosted by the Government of Norway in partnership with the Governments of Germany and Nigeria.

Situation overview

• The number of security incidents and civilian victims in the region increased in January. This is mainly attributed to easier movements during the dry season, as well as the dispersion of Boko Haram elements carrying out isolated actions.

• Major security incidents reported include the mistaken bombing of an IDP site, in Rann, and the accidental killing of 16 IDPs collecting firewood, in Ngala LGA, by Nigerian armed forces. Armed attacks killed five soldiers in Nigeria’s Yobe state, two soldiers in Niger, and five members of a UN monitoring mission in Cameroon along the Nigerian border.

• Humanitarian access remains a considerable challenge impeding the delivery of aid in many areas. In north-east Nigeria, four local government areas continue to be inaccessible.

Population movement

• While no major new population movements have been reported, the situation in the region remains dynamic, with return movements and some access routes being reopened, but also new displacements due to security incidents.
  Some 2.3 million people across the region remain displaced.

• The number of IDPs in Cameroon has more than doubled since the start of 2015. According to the latest IOM-led Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) conducted in December 2016, there are 191,908 IDPs, including 174,459 displaced by conflict in the country’s Far North region. In addition, the DTM counted 23,430 non-registered refugees and 35,665 returnees.

• On 26 January, the Borno state government started relocating 20,076 IDPs from various camps in Maiduguri, including Bakassi, Kachallari, Teachers’ Village and NYSC Camp, to their home local government areas (LGA) in Mafa, Monguno, Damboa, Ngala, Nganzai and Kukawa.
  Food Insecurity and Malnutrition

• In January, the food security sector assisted more than 1 million people in Nigeria’s north-east. Some 5.1 million people are projected to face emergency and crisis levels of food insecurity in the coming months.

• Malnutrition rates remain high. In 2016, almost 215,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) were admitted for treatment, which represents almost half of the total caseload in the four countries.
  This includes more than 154,000 children in north-east Nigeria, 28,000 in Cameroon’s Far North, 20,000 in Chad’s Lac region, and 14,000 in Niger’s Diffa region.

• In 2017, some 515,000 children are expected to suffer from SAM across the Lake Chad Basin. This includes 450,000 children in Nigeria’s three most affected states alone, where an estimated total of 3.4 million will require nutrition assistance.

• In December 2016, around 49,000 displaced people in 23 sites in Chad’s Lac region benefitted from cash-based assistance by WFP and its implementing partners. These interventions are combined with actions to strengthen livelihoods and community resilience. Around 160,000 people in the Lac region are food insecure.

Protection

• In Chad’s Lac region, more people reportedly continue to surrender from Boko Haram ranks.
  Assessments are ongoing by humanitarian partners to determine needs for assistance to some 729 women and children released from Baga Sola and their communities of origin.

• Partners in Chad have set up early warning and protection monitoring mechanisms in around 40 sites and villages in order to collect information and refer cases of protection rights violations. However, around 65,000 displaced people in other locations do not have access to identification, referral and response mechanisms for rights violations, including gender-based violence.