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The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Nigeria, UNOCHA has called for a shift in solutions to addressing the humanitarian crisis in the Northeast.
According to the Head, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Nigeria (OCHA), Mr Trond Jensen, stakeholders must go beyond humanitarian assistance and invest more in the development of the Northeast to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the region.
No fewer than five million people in the Northeast have benefitted from the United Nations agencies in the last 10 years, Jensen said during a press conference to mark this year’s UN’s 78th anniversary in Abuja.
He stressed that more work is needed to be done to resolve the crisis in the BAY States (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe).
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Jensen pointed out that 300 million people were currently in need of humanitarian assistance compared to 81 million in 2014.
He said: “What we are seeing today is increasing conflict. We are seeing increasing threats from climate change.
“And the Secretary-General has been saying over the last year that as humanity we are facing an existential threat. These are all enormous challenges of course. We can only solve these together.
“With multilateralism under threat, the value of the United Nations is greater than ever in terms of coming together to solve these problems. Just to illustrate. In the last ten years, 81 million people needed humanitarian assistance.
“We estimate that today 300 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance from conflict, and changing climate conditions. And that’s a good grouping in a decade. People need humanitarian assistance but also critically need their protection.
“Like my colleagues, I will also be brief just to say that we are facing multiple challenges in Nigeria. We highly appreciate the work of the government. Also, civil society is working together with the United Nations to resolve some of the issues that we are seeing today including the recent flooding,” he said.