NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, July 29, 2016

Their destruction has left many people in northeastern Nigeria internally displaced or refugees in neighbouring countries such as Cameroon and Chad.

Since the conflict heightened in 2009, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) estimates “more than 20,000 people have been killed, and over 2,000 women and girls have been abducted. 2.5 million people have fled their homes, of whom 2.2 million are internally displaced, and 177,000 are seeking refuge in the neighbouring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.”

Farmlands and livestock have also been left behind leading to a shortfall in food supplies; figures from UNOCHA presents a dire picture.

“3.9 million people in the North-East are food insecure, and 2.5 million are malnourished, especially children and pregnant and lactating women.”

As such, aid from the World Food Programme (WFP) is very much needed. One way the organisation is sifting through the chaos to provide critical services is with the help of mobile money.