Nigeria: Humanitarian Dashboard (January - May 2017)

SITUATION OVERVIEW

The humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s north-east and the Lake Chad region is one of the most severe in the world today, with 8.5m people in need of humanitarian assistance in 2017 in the worst-affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, and 6.9m targeted for humanitarian assistance. Now in its eighth year, the crisis shows no sign of abating and is adding to the long history of marginalization and chronic under-development as well as high rates of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment.

Today more than 1.9 million people are internally displaced in the six states in the north-east. 80 percent of the IDPs are in Borno State, the epicenter of the crisis. Insecurity has severely restricted livelihood activities such as farming and trade, worsening an already dire food security situation and leading to heavy inflation of staple food prices. As areas become accessible again, many who sought refuge in neighbouring countries are returning to their areas of origin which is further stretching the emergency services in place. According to the latest Cadre Harmonisé assessment, 5.2 million people are projected to be in need of food assistance (IPC 3 to 5) in the three most crisis-affected states from June until August 2017.

During the first five months of 2017, despite insufficient funding and access challenges, humanitarian organisations were able to reach more than 45 per cent of the targeted population with life-saving aid. As coordinated preparedness plans are developed to mitigate the impact of the rainy season additional funding is urgently needed.