330,000 Nigerians seek refuge in Chad, Niger, and Cameroon due to insecurity – FG

Sadiya Umar Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, claims that 330,000 Nigerians have fled to Chad, Niger Republic, and Cameroon as a result of a long-running insurgency and banditry in the north, as well as farmers-herders clashes in most parts of the country.

She said this at a Chatham House Webinar on Saturday to discuss Nigeria’s humanitarian challenges and worsening food crises.

The refugees were 16,634 in Chad, 118,409 in Cameroon, and 186,957 in Niger Republic, according to the minister.

Communal and farmer-herder clashes in the Middle Belt and Southern regions, as well as floods, droughts, fires, and industrial accidents, she said, were to blame for the influx of Nigerian refugees in neighboring countries.

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She recalled that the World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that 3.4 million people in Borno, Yobe, and the Adamawa States were facing acute hunger, with another 4.3 million relying on the government or multilateral food assistance across the country.

Her ministry, she said, had launched two key frameworks aimed at bolstering humanitarian efforts and making them more practical and effective.

“The first is the Humanitarian Development Peace Nexus Framework, which is based on the UN Triple Nexus principles, which hold that development leads to peace and that humanitarian actions can lead to development,” she explained.

“The second initiative is the Localization Framework, which was adopted after stakeholders pledged to reenergize the concept of aid localization at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit.

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“The concept aims to improve the effectiveness and relevance of the humanitarian system by ensuring that humanitarian preparedness and response capacity is housed with those closest to the crisis-affected populations, as they are best positioned to respond quickly and appropriately.”

“The food security challenges in the Northeast are peculiar due to the fluid and volatile situation in the region,” she said of the approaches taken by her ministry to mitigate the suffering caused by humanitarian situations leading to food crises in Nigeria.

“However, within the Civil-Security Framework and coordination platform, the ministry has been working effectively with both humanitarian stakeholders and the military to facilitate humanitarian access and promote accountability in the humanitarian space.

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“The recently approved National IDP Policy also provides a leadership and guidance framework for the North-East region in terms of food security, as well as promotes minimum standards and thresholds to address ongoing displacement until a long-term solution for the IDPs.”