The Chief of the UN Migration Agency, Mr. Frantz Celestin, said that attacks by non-state armed groups in Nigeria had left relief workers unsure about the extent of needs among some communities.
Celestin said the terrorists have been applying a “hit-and-run” tactics which have caused many more persons to seek refuge in safer towns and neighbouring nations.
He said that the armed extremists, notably Boko Haram militants had contributed to a decade-long humanitarian crisis in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States that had spilt over into the Lake Chad region.
“Since November, we have seen 59,200 displaced,” IOM Nigeria’s Chief of Mission, Frantz Celestin said, noting that in the last two years, “we have not seen that many people on the move,” the report by Nigeria’s Channels Television on Wednesday quoted Celestin as saying.
According to him, the last two months of 2018 were marked by “an increased sophistication’” of non-State armed groups accompanied by “an increased number of attacks and success in taking towns.”