The International Committee of the Red Cross says thousands of civilians are paying a “heavy price” as armed conflict escalates in the northeast.
It came after a health facility in Rann and shelters for internally displaced persons were burnt down a few days ago.
ICRC says it is the latest in a series of attack that have caused the largest wave of displacement since 2017.
“Thousands of families caught in between the fighting have had to flee for their lives. Parents with their children, taking the little they could, escaped into the bush and slept in the open air,” said Markus Dolder, the head of ICRC’s office in Maiduguri.
“Some managed to reach places — ‘camps’ — where they can receive some assistance, but what about the others?”
The burned-down health facility was where two ICRC midwives who were killed in captivity last year once worked.
“We are extremely concerned by the worsening humanitarian situation in north-east Nigeria. Civilians should be spared by all parties to the conflict, as per international humanitarian law,” Dolder said.
Estimates suggest up to 55,000 people have been displaced in the last two months from inner areas of Borno, and some 30,000 of them have reached the capital, Maiduguri.
The city already has more than a million internally displaced persons on 14 camps and in host communities.
New camps are planned as existing camps are overwhelmed with the influx.
The ICRC and other aids groups have begun building temporary shelters for 1,500 households, distributing essential household items and offering a one-off cash support for new arrivals in the camps for displaced people.
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