Representatives of the Catholic Church’s aid agency Caritas will meet in Rome tomorrow to plan its urgent response to the humanitarian crisis in Nigeria, where more than a million people have fled attacks by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
Displaced families have relied on Catholic Church and other aid groups for shelter, food and medicine. Some have fled to neighbouring countries and others are returning home to their destroyed villages.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Caritas admitted it had been overwhelmed by the fallout of violent conflict in the region and further south-east in the Central African Republic (CAR).
Caritas’ Executive Director, Fr Evaristus Bassey, will be joined by representatives from countries including Cameroon, Niger and Chad at the meeting in Rome on Thursday and Friday.
Boko Haram is reportedly losing grip on swathes of its self-proclaimed caliphate in northern Nigeria, thanks to a counter-offensive by the armies of Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, but its kidnappings continue. Today it emerged that the Islamist extremist organisation had abducted some 500 women and children from the recently liberated town of Damasak, in Borno state.
Ahead of the meeting Fr Bassey spoke of the terror and suffering of Nigerians who had fled Boko Haram.
“We at Caritas, along with other people of goodwill, are doing our best to provide food, healthcare and sometimes shelter to the families who had to flee their homes. But the needs are staggering,” he said today.
More than 2,500 people are sheltering at a church-run camp at St Theresa Cathedral in Yola, Nigeria, with thousands more sheltering in church buildings around the country.
“With people going back to their homes, there are real issues about rebuilding and recovery,” Fr Bassey said. “So much has been destroyed – most people have no homes, nothing.”
He went on: “The attention of the world has not been turned to this problem. Nigerians are rising to the occasion, but the needs are so many.”
As well as devising a humanitarian action plan for Nigeria, the meeting will focus on the plight of people in the CAR, where more than 800,000 people have been driven from their homes by fighting between militias from Muslim and Christian communities.
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