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NIGERIA-UNICEF-NGO
Nigerian military lifts ban on UNICEF in restive northeast
ABUJA, Dec 15, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The Nigerian military lifted a ban on
UNICEF operations in the ravaged northeast late Friday after earlier
suspending the aid agency and accusing it of training “spies” supporting Boko
Haram jihadists.
The military earlier Friday said the United Nations children’s agency had
this week held workshops in the northeast city of Maiduguri training people
for “clandestine” activities that were “sabotaging” counterterrorism efforts.
Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency has killed more than 27,000 people since
it began in 2009 and has triggered a humanitarian crisis in the wider Lake
Chad region, where the jihadists have stepped up attacks in recent months.
But after a meeting between the military and the aid agency late Friday,
army spokesman Onyema Nwachukwu said the ban had been revoked following an
“intervention by well meaning and concerned Nigerians”.
“During the meeting, the Theatre Command admonished the representatives of
the organisation to desist from activities inimical to Nigeria’s national
security and capable of undermining the ongoing fight against terrorism and
insurgency,” he said in a statement.
“The Command also urged UNICEF representatives to ensure they share
information with relevant authorities whenever induction or training of new
staff is being conducted in the theatre,”Nwachukwu said.
He said after extensive deliberations “the Theatre Command has henceforth
lifted the three months suspension earlier imposed on UNICEF activities in
northeastern Nigeria”.
Nwachukwu had earlier said there was “credible information that some
(UNICEF representatives) are indulging in unwholesome practices that could
further jeopardise the fight against terrorism and insurgency, as they train
and deploy spies who support the insurgents and their sympathisers” and that
UNICEF operations would therefore be suspended until further notice.
Boko Haram’s bloody uprising in northeastern Nigeria has spread to
neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, leaving 1.8 million people homeless
and millions dependent on aid for survival.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in 2015 pledging to
end the violence, is under increasing pressure to act as he gears up to seek
re-election in a February ballot.
He has come under attack for previously claiming the Islamists were
“technically defeated”.
The Nigerian military has hit out at media reporting casualty figures of
the attacks and even threatened legal action against organisations for
publishing unofficial death tolls.
It has also dismissed reports from international human rights organisations
that it has committed rights violations and war crimes during its fight
against Boko Haram.
Amnesty International had on Friday condemned the suspension and called on
Nigeria to reverse the decision.
“We see the suspension of UNICEF as part of a wider drive to intimidate
international humanitarian and human rights organisations who are working to
save lives in this devastating conflict,” said Amnesty’s Nigeria director
Osai Ojigho.
“The Nigerian army has accused UNICEF of ‘aiding Boko Haram’ — an absurd
charge. The suspension of UNICEF will in fact deprive those whose lives have
been devastated by the Boko Haram conflict from receiving much-needed
humanitarian assistance,” Ojigho said.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0755 hrs