1,400 Borno schools destroyed – UNICEF

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February 2, 2018 12:13 PM

Even with the federal government fighting the terrorist group Boko Haram, the destruction the group has left behind is to large extents.

In the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan for Northeast the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated that 1,400 schools have been destroyed in Borno as a result of years of Boko Haram insurgency in the state.

It stated that “Many of these schools are unable to reopen for safety reasons. Over one million children are currently out of school. Only half of the 755 health facilities in Borno remain functional and nearly 1,400 schools have been damaged or destroyed.”

“The protracted crisis has also compromised the physical safety and psychosocial well-being of 2.5 million children in north-east Nigeria, who require immediate assistance.”

The UN agency said violence and conflict-related displacement had increased dramatically in Nigeria over the past decade.

“In the three most directly affected states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe, 7.7 million people require humanitarian assistance. This includes 4.3 million children and 1.6 million internally displaced persons, more than half of whom are children.”

“92% of the internally displaced are located in the three north-eastern states. An estimated 400,000 children in 14 local government areas in Borno will be severely malnourished in 2018. Five local government areas in Yobe are experiencing global acute malnutrition rates of 10% to 20%.”

“An estimated 1.5 million people lack access to safe water – 940,000 in Borno, 480,000 in Adamawa and 80,000 in Yobe. As a result, vulnerable children are becoming acutely malnourished after repeated bouts of diarrheal disease,” the UN children’s agency said.

In 2018, UNICEF said it would continue to deliver an integrated intervention package to affected populations, in coordination with the Government, UN agencies, and non-governmental organizations.

To improve the quality of its response, UNICEF said it was increasingly taking an integrated approach, especially among the health and nutrition sectors.

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