Nigerian Governor Accuses Aid Groups of Profiting From Crisis
A Nigerian official has accused aid agencies of profiting from the starvation and refugee crisis in the country, illustrating the challenges of responding to the largest humanitarian crisis in Africa.
The Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria has uprooted some 2.6 million people from their homes and left an estimated 5.1 million people at risk of starvation.
Kashim Shettima – the governor of Borno state, which is at the center of the crisis – said only eight of 126 registered aid groups are doing “good work,” while the rest are treating Nigeria as a “cash cow” and “may as well leave.”
Shettima took particular umbrage at aid agencies buying expensive bulletproof vehicles or flying helicopters to inspect aid projects.
Yet aid groups say a major obstacle to delivering aid is the continued security risk. Many towns and villages are still out of reach for aid agencies amid continuing hostilities, while suicide bombers threaten urban centers and displacement camps – there were five attacks in the Borno state capital this weekend.
Aid groups say the Nigerian government initially minimized the extent of the crisis. Further complicating the aid effort, several local government agencies are being investigated for siphoning off food aid.
Medecins Sans Frontieres recently began distributing food aid to displaced Nigerians, a departure from its traditional medical role that it said was necessary in the absence of help from other organizations.
Italy’s Reopened Libya Embassy to Coordinate Anti-Smuggling Efforts
Italy has reopened its embassy in Libya after two years, becoming the only Western nation with a diplomatic presence in the country.
The Italian ambassador Giuseppe Perrone arrived in Tripoli on January 10 and promised to help Libya combat “illegal migration, terrorism and human smuggling.”
Italy’s interior minister Marco Minniti also met the U.N.-backed Libyan prime minister Fayez Seraj in Tripoli and pledged to tackle smuggling and reinforce Libya’s southern borders.
“The Italian embassy that operates from Tripoli will be the principal coordination center for all these projects,” the Interior Ministry said.
Most diplomats pulled out of the country in 2014 as conflict worsened following the fall of Moammar Gadhafi. Italy, once a colonial power in Libya, stayed until 2015.
Somali Refugee Becomes Canada’s Immigration Minister
Ahmed Hussen, a Somali refugee who came to Canada alone aged 16, has been sworn in as Canada’s minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship.
Hussen was appointed to the post after Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau reshuffled his cabinet. He will oversee a ministry that plans to accept 300,000 refugees and migrants into Canada this year.
“I am extremely proud of our country’s history as a place of asylum, a place that opens its doors and hearts to new immigrants and refugees,” Hussen told reporters. “The story of Canada is the story of immigration, and I’m especially proud and humbled that the prime minister would task me with this important role.”
Hussen, who arrived in Canada in 1993, was the country’s first Somali-Canadian M.P. and is now the first Canadian cabinet minister born in Somalia.
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