The war nobody talks about: 350,000 dead in 12 years

The conflict in northeast Nigeria, rocked by attacks by jihadist groups Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa (ISWA), has left nearly 350,000 deaths over the past twelve years, a figure ten times higher than estimates used so far, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The agency pointed out in a report released on Thursday that “According to national data, the conflict has directly caused the deaths of 35,000 people” since 2009, although it has affected that “the total human cost of the war is much higher”.

“Many more have died from the indirect effects of the conflict. We estimate that by the end of 2020, the conflict would have killed around 350,000 people, including 314,000 due to indirect causes.», He declared, before alerting that “Even before the conflict began, the region was one of the poorest in Nigeria and faced many development challenges.

“Children, particularly vulnerable to malnutrition and diseases due to lack of clean water, are the hardest hit,” he said, before detailing that “more than 90 percent of deaths attributable to conflict so far ‘in 2020, around 324,000. They concern children. less than five years ”. So he said that “Another decade of conflict could push the death toll to over 1.1 million.”

In this sense, UNDP stated that “Years of attack and destruction have resulted in immense humanitarian, human rights and development crises, endangering the lives of millions of people” in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, the epicenter of the conflict.

The agency thus declared that the death toll it manages “is the result of the physical and economic effects of the conflict” and added “Insecurity has led to a decline in agricultural production and trade, reducing access to food and threatening more households who depend on it for their income.

“Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have been displaced from their homes, often resulting in the loss of livelihoods, goods and essential support systems,” he explained, before stressing that “displaced populations often live in situations of overcrowding and degraded living conditions without access to clean water and sanitation ”.

On the other hand, he pointed out that “Under non-conflict conditions, development in the region could improve steadily, but slowly, with GDP growth of over five percent between 2008 and 2030.”

“In the conflict scenario, the region cannot improve significantly in the face of the ‘shock’ of heavy fighting and destruction in 2014 and 2015,” he said, before noting that “the consequences of this Development stagnation, in terms of opportunities and lives lost, is immense and will affect the people of the region for decades ”.

Along the same lines, he pointed out that “The conflict has been particularly damaging to education, as schools have been directly attacked by insurgents” and added that “in 2020, an estimated 1.8 million students are out of school.”

“This blow to human development will require decades of recovery,” said UNDP, reiterating that “Each year that the conflict continues, the burden weighs even more on the children.” “Every day of conflict in 2020 costs the lives of 170 children under the age of five,” he said.

“By 2030, this figure will increase to 240. Destruction and displacement have set back the development of the region for decades and the continuation of conflicts will only generate more scars in the region,” the agency noted in its report. report.

The conflict in northeast Nigeria erupted in 2009, after then-leader of the Islamist Boko Haram sect, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed by security forces. His successor, Abubakar Shekau, took up arms and launched a series of attacks that spread from Borno to neighboring states.

The group swore allegiance to the Islamic State in 2015, although Shakau was not recognized as a leader, which led to its split and the rise of ISWA. Shekau himself died in May after fighting with the Islamic State in the Sambisa Forest, one of its main strongholds.

(with EP information)

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