Crisis in Lake Chad region persists UN
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alongside life-saving humanitarian response addressing the underlying cause is vital to ensure lasting solution to the crisis the un relief chief highlighted1 the un emergency relief coordinator mr mark lowcock has said that in spite of improvements in the humanitarian situation the crisis in the lake chad region is not over1 the top un relief chief at the berlin conference on the lake chad basin region on monday urged greater international support for the region to safeguard the progress achieved1 there is still a big humanitarian crisis. it is not over despite the progress we have made lowcock told a high-level humanitarian conference on the region1 in february the meeting at a un-backed conference in oslo norway donors pledged over 650 million towards emergency assistance programmes in 2017 and beyond1 according to him these resources helped achieve a significant scale-up in the humanitarian response reaching more than six million people with assistance and averting a famine in northeast nigeria1 however he said that humanitarian needs had continued to grow and so do the resources needed to respond1 of the 1.58 billion required for 2018 only about 600 million or 38 per cent had been received as of july 25 he said1 the appeal we had on the humanitarian response plan this year has been generously financed but not to the degree where any of us can be comfortable that we can meet the needs of the people we can reach still less of those we are still trying to reach lowcock said1 the un humanitarian coordinator urged additional funding and resources1 he noted that no fewer than 10 million people across the four countries nigeria cameroon chad and niger remained dependent on assistance1 at the same time relief workers face severe challenges reaching the worst affected due to boko haram violence according to the un office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs ocha1 he said that millions of people continue to remain dependent on life-saving assistance1 lowcock noted that there was the need to scale up longer-term resilience and development assistance as well as promoting stabilisation1 if we can make more progress with peace building good governance the creation of jobs and education opportunities and the respect of human rights we work indeed with the underlying issues and this is what we need to do he said1 organised by ocha and the un development programme undp together with the governments of nigeria germany and norway on sept. 3 to 4 in berlin the conference seeks to maintain the momentum from the 2017 oslo conference and increase and expand international support1 it is expected to reinforce an approach combining the response to immediate humanitarian needs with addressing the root causes of the crisis in a way that leads to sustainable resilient development1 education he says is one of the sectors desperately needing resources is education an area that often lacks funds in humanitarian emergencies1 earlier on monday manuel fontaine the director of emergency programmes at un childrens fund unicef said that where there is insecurity education can be both life-sustaining and life-saving1 with some 1000 schools reported to have been closed or rendered non-functional due to violence or unrest across the region ensuring access education can be both life-sustaining and life-saving fontaine said1 education supports children and young peoples life-long learning. it gives them the necessary skills to build a better future for themselves and their families and to contribute to peaceful and prosperous communities1 yet too often overall humanitarian education funding is lacking in emergencies the unicef official said1 unicef had called for 41.7 million to meet the education needs of children in the crisis but has received just eight per cent of this amount in the first half of 20181 other sectoral priorities for unicef include food security and nutrition emergency shelter and non-food items protection health water hygiene and sanitation and early recovery. nan1