Lake Chad Basin: Crisis Update No. 22 (January - February 2018)

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Three aid workers killed in armed attack in north-east Nigeria
• Over 100 GBV cases reported in Chad’s Lac region in January
• Around 8,000 Cameroonians newly displaced in Mayo-Tsanaga
• Malnutrition on the rise in Niger’s Diffa region
• US$1.6 billion needed to assist 7.8 million people
• UN Deputy Emergency Response Coordinator visits Cameroon and Chad
• Voluntary repatriation of Nigerian refugees in Cameroon to start

10.7M
people in need
7.8M
targeted for assistance
2.3M
people displaced
5.8M
food insecure people at crisis and emergency level
488k
children suffering from severe acute malnutrition
1.6B
funding requirement in 2018

SITUATION OVERVIEW

In Cameroon’s Far North region, around 30 attacks were recorded in January alone in which around 20 people were killed, homes destroyed, livestock and property looted. Military operations have triggered displacements and restricted humanitarian assistance. Some 8,000 Cameroonians fled their homes in Mayo Tsanaga due to recent military operations and armed incursions. Since January, around 2,000 Nigerian asylum seekers relocated to Minawao camp, the main refugee settlement in Far North region. Part of them fled military counter-offensives in Nigeria’s Sambisa Forest area into Cameroon while a majority were out of camp refugees who decided to join the camp due to robberies and attacks in the villages they had settled in.
In Niger, armed raiders have killed and abducted civilians in Diffa region. An average of 12 civilians were killed, injured or abducted every month in 2017 in the region, a decline from an average of 20 per month in 2015 – 2016.

DISRUPTIVE ARMED ATTACKS

The recent months have been marked by dramatic incidents of insecurity. Armed raiders on 19 February abducted 110 school girls in Dapchi locality in Nigeria’s north-eastern Yobe state. The incident happened nearly four years after the kidnapping of over 270 girls from their school in Chibok area in Borno state. The authorities said most of the girls were freed on 21 March. The Government had previously announced that it prefered to negotiate their release. Attacks and insecurity remain prevalent in north-east Nigeria and the Far North region of Cameroon.
On 1 March, an attack on the town of Rann in Borno, near the border with Cameroon, claimed the lives of three aid workers. Three others were abducted and another injured. As security assessments are being carried out, a temporary relocation of the aid workers stationed in Rann was decided. The town is home to around 80,000 people, including 55,000 internally displaced persons who are mostly dependent on humanitarian assistance for their survival. Attacks on camps for displaced, villages and towns are recurrent, causing death and injury to civilians and continuous population displacements.

PERSISTENT FOOD INSECURITY

Protracted violence, population displacements and disrupted livelihoods have contributed to high levels of hunger across the conflict-hit Lake Chad Basin region.
Some 5.8 million are currently food insecure. Increased humanitarian assistance and favourable harvest in certain areas have helped ease food insecurity.
However, most poor households and displaced people remain highly dependent on food assistance to survive.
Staple food prices are mostly well above average, making food access even more difficult for households with few income-earning opportunities. In areas in Nigeria’s north-east which are hard to reach for humanitarian organisations, there is an elevated risk of famine, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) warned on 2 March. However, it pointed out that there is insufficient evidence to make a formal determination on famine.

PROTECTION

Protracted violence continues to subject civilians, including IDPs, refugees and host communities to grave protection risks and violations. In Chad, 106 cases of gender-based violence were reported in January in the western Lac region, mostly physical assaults (33 per cent) and resource deprivation (27 per cent). All victims received psychosocial support, but very few received medical and legal assistance. In 2017, 2,270 cases of sexual and gender-based violence were reported.
Comprehensive care for survivors is a persisting challenge. In 2018, the main challenge is access to justice for GBV survivors due to impunity, weak legal systems and cultural barriers. Access to health care services is also extremely limited and the number of mobile clinics has fallen due to lack of funding.