Lake ChadHumanitarian crisis unfolding in Lake Chad region

A major humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Africa’s Lake Chad Basin, where violence and destruction have caused huge population displacements, left hundreds of thousands of children trapped behind conflict lines, and led to a dramatic increase in malnutrition. Many have lost years of education.

UNICEF says that Boko Haram’s attacks and military counter-offensives have displaced more than two million people across north-eastern Nigeria, Cameroon’s Far North, western Chad, and south-east Niger. The majority of the displaced are sheltered by communities who themselves count among the world’s most vulnerable. Vital infrastructure including health centers, schools, water pipelines, and roads have been destroyed. Many of the children caught in the conflict have been subjected to unimaginable violence and abuse; they have lost their families, their homes and their schools.

Women and girls kidnapped by Boko Haram have been subjected to physical and psychological abuse, forced marriage, sexual slavery or forced labor. Children have been forcibly enrolled as combatants and used as suicide bombers. Across the region almost a third of the population is food insecure. Nearly half a million children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, many of whom could die if not urgently assisted.

— Read more in Silent Shame: Bringing out the voices of children caught in the Lake Chad crisis (UNICEF, 12 April 2017)