Following Army invasion of the United Nations’ building in Maiduguri, the UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. Peter Lundberg has said that, the agency has resolved to continue with its operations in the northeast after suspending its activities for one day in the State.
Speaking on Saturday, during a joint press conference with the Borno state government, the UN humanitarian coordinator said, UN met with government officials, where they assured them that, henceforth, all issues regarding UN activities would be respected.
Mr. Lundberg said the UN work like everyone working in the northeast, but often restricted as a result of insecurity.
According to him, ” Over 80 percent of Borno State is considered high or very high risk for humanitarians, often constraining access to desperately vulnerable communities.”
Aside the insecurity, the UN deputy coordinator also pointed at the ongoing rainy season as creating challenges to humanitarian operations as it affects access to road in some areas of their operations.
He said, ” Our work is funded by international donors. In 2017, we, the United Nations and our partners, appealed for over $1 billion. As of today, we receive only 45 percent fund, which means that, we have received 470million. This is for funds received against the appeal – what we call the Humanitarian Response Plan. So, we need more money to be able to achieve what we set out to do at the start of the year.”
Speaking earlier, Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima said, the incident yesterday, was regrettable, stressing that, following the incident, he conveyed a security council meeting with all the security chiefs in the state in attendance.
” We met alongside UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator and reaffirmed and resolved to work in synergy and look forward for even stronger collaboration with the United Nations. I have been on phone since yesterday with our Sister, Mrs Amina Mohammed, and I assured her to continue to give the UN and humanitarian workers, our support at all times,” he said.
Governor Kashim Shettima,who describing the incident of the invasion of the military on UN building as a minor hiccups added that,” For everyday humanitarian activity is suspended, someone, somewhere may not have access to food or medicine. We all need each other, as stakeholders in the humanitarian work in Borno, we have come to a common understanding and we promise to work on greater collaboration.
Comments