United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) has said that 8.4 million people are in dire need of humanitarian aid in the North East this year.
According to the UN agency, the conflict stemming from the insurgency of non-state armed groups in the region continues as intensely as ever.
UN-OCHA raised the alarm in its Humanitarian Needs Overview 2022 Report, released, yesterday, in Maiduguri, Borno State.
“The attacks have displaced 2.2 million people with the devastation of agricultural production and other livelihoods,” said the report. “There is no early end to the conflict.”
It further disclosed that 1.5 million are Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) returnees, who lack basic services and livelihoods in their liberated communities.
ALSO, Mercy Corps has partnered with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to facilitate the recovery of the business environment in the region.
The partnership aims to improve the “resilience and livelihoods” of small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs.
Mercy Corps Country Director, Ndubisi Anyanwu, stated, yesterday, in Maiduguri: “We value partnerships and believe they offer the best opportunities to deliver quality programmes for sustenance in the long run.”
He added that 14 Organised Private Sector (OPS) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate the recovery of small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs.
Anyanwu lamented that the market structure in the region had been negatively impacted by the ongoing conflict and insecurity.
To overcome the challenges, the Rural Resilience Activity (RRA) is investing $2.5 million (N1.17 billion) through the Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO), The Guardian gathered.
