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Situation Overview: Humanitarian Needs and Conflict Dynamics in Hard-to-Reach Areas of Eastern Borno State (January - March 2020)

Countries
Nigeria
Sources
REACH
Publication date
Origin
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INTRODUCTION

The continuation of conflict in Northeast Nigeria has created a complex humanitarian crisis, rendering sections of Borno State as hard-to-reach (H2R) for humanitarian actors. To support the humanitarian response for affected populations, REACH has been conducting data collection in Northeast Nigeria since November 2018. The aim of these assessments is to inform humanitarian service providers on the demographics of the 971,0001 persons estimated to be remaining in H2R areas, as well as to identify their needs, access to services, and to map displacement trends and intentions of movements.

This situation overview covers Eastern Borno: Bama, Dikwa, Gwoza and Ngala. This area was described in the 2020 Humanitarian Needs Overview as experiencing frequent conflict between military and non-state group actors and scoring “extreme” for intersectoral severity of needs.2 For information on North- and Central Borno, please see situation overview for North- and Central Borno.

KEY FINDINGS

Movements: People continue to leave H2R areas because of conflict. Focus group discussion (FGD) participants reported that many of the people left behind were women, children and the elderly. Protection: Incidents of conflict that killed a civilian and incidents of looting were reported by assessed settlements in all assessed Local Government Areas (LGAs) with the highest proportions reported in Dikwa and Gwoza, respectively for each type of incident.

Food Security: Food access related indicators suggested that people were using coping strategies to deal with a lack of food. In Dikwa, Gwoza and Ngala more than half of assessed settlements reported most people relied on foraging as their main source of food. Health: Almost none of the assessed settlements reported access to a functional health facility. The most common health problems were reported to be fever/malaria in Bama and Gwoza, and water borne illnesses in Dikwa and Ngala.

WASH: The main drinking water sources were reported to be unimproved sources in almost all assessed settlements. The use of latrines was reported to be particularly low in Dikwa and Ngala.

Shelter: Makeshift shelters were the most commonly reported main shelter type for host communities in all LGAs and for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Gwoza, the LGA with the highest proportion of assessed settlements reporting the presence of IDPs.

Communication: Communication systems in H2R areas were reported to be severely limited, with the main source of information most often reported as in-person communication or that the settlement had no sources of information.