UN envoy asks Nigeria to determine Boko Haram’s funding sources

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria

UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria Edward Kallon has asked the country to determine the Boko Haram terrorist group’s sponsors and sources of funds to find a pathway to end the violence and terror activities in the northeast region.

"Nigeria needs to find out who are those funding the insurgency, where do they get the resources, and also how can the people hold them accountable," Kallon said Wednesday in an address in Maiduguri, the heartland of Boko Haram violence, at the launch of a report on assessing the impact of conflict on development in northeastern Nigeria

He said the questions needed to be answered by the authorities in Nigeria to find a pathway to a durable solution to the prolonged attacks in the region.

Kallon said country donors have supported the humanitarian challenge in Nigeria with about US$3.3 billion between 2017 and 2020.

He said Nigerians in the northeast have endured hardships and displacement, with many forced off their farmlands in over a decade of terrorist attacks. He called for the development of strategies to get the affected population out of the impact of the violence.

Kallon led envoys from the European Union, UK, US, Norway, France, Germany and Switzerland as well as representatives of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the northeast to see displaced persons and assess the humanitarian situation in the area.

UK High Commissioner Catriona Laing called for unity of action to address the humanitarian challenge in the area.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in attacks by Boko Haram in the country’s northeast, according to a 2019 UN report.

Nigeria’s Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs put the figure for displaced persons in the crisis at three million.