Many depend on humanitarian aid for survival
Inside government-controlled areas, hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people are entirely dependent on humanitarian aid for survival. Disruptions of humanitarian assistance, including food aid, have life-threatening consequences—particularly for the most vulnerable. This, along with continued insecurity in the area that prevents people from farming or fishing, risks creating another nutrition crisis.
Even as people continue to bear the brunt of the decade-long conflict, aid organizations face limitations in caring for them. Humanitarian aid has been repeatedly targeted throughout the conflict—with aid workers killed and, most recently, the forced suspensions of vital assistance amid spurious accusations of nongovernmental organizations furthering the conflict.
Since the conflict in northeast Nigeria began in 2009, approximately 35,000 people have been killed, while 1.8 million people have been displaced from their homes and a further 230,000 people have fled to neighboring Chad, Cameroon, and Niger. MSF has worked continuously in Nigeria since 1996 and in northeast Nigeria since 2014 and will continue to provide lifesaving medical care for those in need, irrespective of race, religion, creed, or political convictions.
