The Boko Haram terrorists have killed over 27,000 civilians since 2009 when the conflict in Nigeria’s northeast started, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Edward Kallon, has said.
He disclosed this while speaking at the remembrance of ten years of crisis in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states at the UN building in Abuja on Wednesday.
While lamenting that the conflict had raged on for a decade, Kallon said the attacks in Nganzai last weekend where more than five civilians were killed, was one of the deadliest in recent years.
He said rising insecurity in recent months had pushed over 130,000 people into displacement with most of them arriving en masse to displaced camps.
He stressed that the attack was a “stark reminder that the conflict is still actively raging in the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe and the subsequent humanitarian crisis is far from over.”
Kallon, who expressed condolences to the families of aid workers who had lost their lives in the Northeast and other states, said their memories will continue to live on in the hearts of all humanitarian aid workers.
While pointing out that the humanitarian community will continue to do their best to come to the rescue of the displaced, he noted that the only solution to the crisis in the Northeast was peace.
On her part, the Head of Office, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), Edem Wosornu, who regretted the loss suffered in the conflicts so far, assured that the UN will continue to do their part in alleviating the suffering of the affected.
