Boko Haram: U.N. Suspends Aid in Borno After Attack On Humanitarian Convoy

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, News Thursday, July 28th, 2016

BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The United Nations says it has suspended aid deliveries in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno, after attack on a humanitarian convoy.

UNICEF said in a statement that unknown assailants attacked the convoy on Thursday as it returned to Maiduguri from delivering aid in Bama, injuring a UNICEF employee and an International Organization for Migration contractor.

The statement reads in full:

“Today unknown assailants attacked a humanitarian convoy that included staff from UNICEF, UNFPA and IOM. The convoy was traveling from Bama to Maiduguri in Borno State, Nigeria, returning from delivering desperately needed humanitarian assistance.

“UNICEF can confirm that a UNICEF employee and an IOM contractor were injured in the attack and are being treated at a local hospital. All other UNICEF, IOM and UNFPA staff are safe.

“The convoy was in a remote area of northeastern Nigeria, where protracted conflict has caused extreme suffering and has triggered a severe malnutrition crisis. This was not only an attack on humanitarian workers. It is an attack on the people who most need the assistance and aid that these workers were bringing.

“The United Nations has temporarily suspended humanitarian assistance missions pending review of the security situation.”

Reports say More than 15,000 people have been killed and at least 2 million displaced by Boko Haram’s insurgency in Nigeria.

The group has also carried out suicide bombings in northeast Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon, Niger and Chad.