HIGHLIGHTS
Thousands of people are being displaced in inaccessible areas of Borno State as the conflict between Boko Haram and the Nigerian Army continues.
Settlements in inaccessible parts of Borno have been completely destroyed.
Pilot relocations from schools due to take place on 4 February stalled following attack on Dalori village on 30 January.
Feedback from IDPs reveals complex attitudes towards relocations.
FIGURES
people in need 7 m
food insecure people 4 m
IDPs 2.2 m
malnourished children 1.5 m
Nigerian refugees 230,000
returned refugees from Cameroon (since 1 Aug) 21,799
FUNDING
248 million HRP requirement (US$) 4% funded (as of 29 January)
Behind the access lines in Borno State
While still complex, humanitarian access to and inside Borno State has increased over the course of the last 12 months: the survey teams for the Displacement Tracking Matrix, for example, increased their access in the state from zero in December 2014 to 10 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in December 2015. International humanitarian partners are tackling the access issue by increasing use of national and local partnerships.
As a result of these partnerships, information from these areas trickles in with increasing frequency, including information about population movements. Behind the access lines, people continue to move across borders in both directions, from inaccessible areas to Maiduguri, and within their own LGAs, largely as a result of Boko Haram activities and military clearance operations, or in search of resources.
Over the course of January, OCHA has been informed of over 50,000 more people being displaced in the northeast of Borno State: approximately 1,600 have fled Marte and Mafa LGAs for Maiduguri following military clearance operations, and 50,000 have crossed international borders to return to Gamboru town in Gamboru-Ngala LGA. Some of the former refugees were brought back by Cameroonian authorities, but the vast majority returned to Gamboru voluntarily to escape deplorable living conditions in their places of refuge, despite ongoing insecurity, following news that much of the LGA had been recaptured. Ngala has seen almost complete destruction. In Gamboru town there are no services at all, and eyewitness accounts describe it as a ghost town.
In Dikwa, the number of people taking refuge in a military camp in Dikwa town increased from 7,500 in September to 30,000 in November, according to humanitarian and government partners who have reached the LGA with ad-hoc assistance through national NGOs and local government partners. By mid-January, the figure had reached 80,000.
Ongoing insecurity means that assistance can only be provided sporadically and needs cannot be properly assessed, so with ongoing displacements within the LGA, each delivery of food and other sundry items falls far short of meeting the rapidly-increasing needs of the escalating numbers. Even within these camps people are not safe, as military encampments are regularly targeted by Boko Haram.
Internally displaced people (IDPs) from Dikwa have taken refuge in camps and host communities in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. Some have arrived in the capital in the last couple of months. Their stories paint a picture of life behind the access lines