Background
Around 17 million people live in the affected areas across the four Lake Chad countries. The number of displaced people has tripled over the last two years. Most of the displaced families are sheltered by communities that count among the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. Food insecurity and malnutrition have reached critical levels.
Recent developments
Over the recent weeks, a wave of suicide bombings and attacks targeting sites hosting the displaced, military positions and public facilities has hit Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno state. Across the border in Niger’s south-eastern Diffa region as well as the Far North region of Cameroon, suspected Boko Haram elements have also launched attacks and looted villages. Meanwhile, in north-eastern Nigeria, humanitarian response is expected to improve with the establishment of a humanitarian base camp and hub project aimed at allowing aid workers to quickly reach the millions of conflict-affected people with life-saving assistance. Between April and August, famine likely occurred in some areas hosting displaced people in Borno’s Bama and Banki towns and other nearby inaccessible areas, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification network. There is high likelihood that famine is ongoing and will continue in the inaccessible areas of Borno, assuming conditions will remain similar or worse to those observed in Bama and Banki towns earlier this year.
Humanitarian partners have appealed for US$1.5 billion to assist 8.2 million people across the Lake Chad Basin in 2017.