UNITED NATIONS TO OFFER ASSISTANCE TO 6.I MILLION VICTIMS OF BOKO HARAM

“The call, which we echoed through Oslo-1 and through the United Nations Security Council Mission, is that we need a holistic approach to this crisis. We cannot address this crisis with humanitarian response alone. The root causes of this crisis are developmental in Northeast Nigeria.

“We are talking about serious concerns of poverty, poverty that is multi-dimension in nature as we speak these days.We’re talking about climate vulnerabilities that is compounding the impacts of the crisis. Hunger and conflict are feeding on each and all that in a vicious cycle in the Lake Chad Basin.”

He also pointed out that, there is no peace without development, no development without peace and no peace and development without strong institutions and encouraged donors and partners that they could save lives in the short-term but must invest in building capacities so that governments could respond and take over their responsibilities.

“Nigeria is a guinea-pig in the new way of working and also the whole nexus debate. It’s not one of the easiest debate but if it has to happen, it has to happen in Nigeria. Nigeria’s representative talked about The Buhari Plan, which was developed at the backdrop of a recovery and peace building assessment that was done by all key stakeholders – UN, the World Bank, donors and the government,

“It is costed and requiring about 6.7 billion dollars to actually bring peace, security in northeast Nigeria, and most of the international financial institutions have started investing. We are pushing the agenda hard but the durable solution to the crisis in Northeast Nigeria is peace and for peace to happen, there is need for a political process,” Kallon said.

Penpushing reports that, participants at the conference included humanitarian coordinators from Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon, and donor countries including Governments of Norway, UK, Canada, the EU, the Netherlands and the U.S., the largest donor.

At the conference, the participants underscored stressed the importance of the Berlin conference holding from Sept. 3 to Sept. 4, and Oslo 2 Conference, to address not only the causes but the consequences of the situation in the Lake Chad region.