Confirming the attack on the UN team, the army spokesman, Col Sani Usman, in a statement said two soldiers and 3 civilians were wounded in the ambush, among whom were staff of United Nations agencies and other worldwide humanitarian organizations.
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By 2014, Boko Haram controlled territory almost the size of Belgium in northeast Nigeria until most of it was recaptured previous year by the Nigerian army and troops from neighboring countries.
“I met the United Nations officials and they told me that the attack would not deter them from doing their humanitarian work”.
Suspected Boko Haram insurgents ambushed a United Nations humanitarian aid caravan in northeastern Nigeria, injuring five people and delaying deliveries of supplies.
According to Sani Usman, the Nigerian Army spokesperson, the terrorists were hiding in Meleri village, a few kilometres from Kawuri.
More than 500,000 people are living in “catastrophic conditions” in Borno state, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said earlier in the week.
Some cities in the northeast, including Bama, had gone up to 18 months without any humanitarian deliveries before aid agencies and the United Nations arrived in June.
Mr. Boulierac stressed that “the convoy had been delivering nutrition, water, sanitation and health support to the more than 25,000 people in Bama who had been displaced by the conflict”, noting that it had only recently become accessible for humanitarian assistance.
“Some 134 children on average will die every day from causes linked to acute malnutrition if the response is not scaled up quickly”, Unicef’s Regional Director for Western and Central Africa, Manuel Fontaine.
O’Brien told the Security Council that Nigeria is bearing “the brunt of the crisis” despite significant government efforts, with Nigerians accounting for seven million of the nine million people needing humanitarian help.
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“From January to June 2016, more than 50 children have been coerced to carry out suicide bombings across the four countries”, O’Brien said.
