The recent Boko Haram attack in the town of Baga in northeastern Nigeria has led to a disruption of aid efforts in and around the area. And because of the volatile situation, emergency humanitarian support is constrained.
According to Nick Westcott, managing director of the European External Action Service in Africa, the European Commission’s humanitarian arm, ECHO, is currently providing immediate short-term support in the form of food, water and health care to internally displaced people who were able to flee their homes in the January attack.
But most of the support, which is coursed through the donor’s implementing partners, is only reaching displaced people in government-controlled areas, such as around the state capital Maiduguri. Some of the EU’s local Nigerian partners are trying to get help in areas under Boko Haram control, but Westcott cautions it’s not very safe at the moment.