Individuals displaced by ongoing violence receive USAID/OFDA-provided commodity kits that include blankets, cooking sets, hygiene supplies, and sleeping mats.

IOM

Key Developments

USAID is responding to the complex emergency in the Lake Chad Basin region, including areas of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.

Security conditions have worsened in parts of the Lake Chad Basin in recent months as organized armed groups continue to attack civilians, particularly in northeastern Nigeria and Cameroon’s Far North Region. The ongoing conflict in the Lake Chad Basin, along with climatic shocks and extreme poverty continue to fuel a displacement crisis in the region. As of September 24, the region was hosting nearly 5.1 million internally displaced persons, refugees, recent returnees, and other migrants.

Heavy rainfall intensified beginning in late July and led to large-scale flooding across Central and West Africa—including much of the Lake Chad Basin—which has damaged cropland, houses, transportation systems, and other infrastructure and led to displacement in affected areas. 

Community transmission of COVID-19 is ongoing across the Lake Chad Basin, and travel restrictions and other measures meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 continue to negatively affect humanitarian conditions. Although humanitarian actors are providing food assistance in accessible areas of the Lake Chad Basin, the ongoing conflict continues to generate widespread food insecurity, which has been exacerbated in recent months by large-scale flooding and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Background

Since 2015, Far North has experienced attacks from Boko Haram and other organized armed groups that have disrupted basic services such as health and education, prompted population displacement, and limited agro-pastoral livelihoods. Overall, the UN reports that nearly 1.9 million people in Far North require humanitarian assistance as a result of insecurity. On December 11, 2019, U.S. Ambassador Peter H. Barlerin redeclared a disaster for FY 2020 due to the ongoing complex emergency in Cameroon and redeclared a disaster due to the humanitarian crisis in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions.