UN Seeks $500m for Nigeria, CAR Refugee Crisis

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) Monday called on donor nations for more than half-a-billion dollars this year to assist thousands of people forced to flee conflicts in Nigeria and the Central African Republic (CAR).

“These two humanitarian crises must not be forgotten; they are not going away,” Liz Ahua, UNHCR’s regional refugee coordinator for the CAR and Nigeria situations, said in a statement. “The suffering is great and the needs acute among both the displaced and host communities. Violence occurs on almost a daily basis in northeast Nigeria and CAR, generating fear and new displacement in the region.”

Two Regional Refugee Response Plans (RRRP) include $198.76 million for 230,000 Nigerian refugees and some 284,300 members of host communities in Niger, Chad, and Cameroon as well as $345.7 million for 476,300 CAR refugees and some 289,000 people hosting them in Chad, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and the Republic of Congo.

UNHCR said that both response plans cover needs in sectors such as protection, education, food security, health and nutrition, livelihoods, shelter, water, and hygiene and sanitation.

“There is light at the end of the tunnel, but we won’t see it unless there is a much stronger commitment from African governments and the international community to help reestablish stability and peace,” Ahua said, urging donors to give more generously.

Source: SPA