Nigeria's Boko Haram insurgency affects millions

Boko Haram has been accused
of numerous attacks in the
north
More than three million people
are facing a humanitarian crisis
in three northern Nigerian
states hit by an Islamist-led
insurgency, the government's
relief agency has said.

The conflict has displaced about
250,000 people since January, it
added.
President Goodluck Jonathan
declared a state of emergency in
the three states last year to
crush the insurgency.
However, the militant Islamist
group Boko Haram has stepped
up attacks in recent months.

The group operates mostly in
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa,
where the state of emergency is
in force.
'Unprecedented crisis'
In a statement, the Nigerian
government's National
Emergency Management Agency
(NEMA) said the "needs of the
affected population are
increasing by the day and the
support of all is urgently
required".

Borno was worst affected, with
about 1.3 million people - most
of them women, children and
the elderly - in need of aid, NEMA
said.
In Adamawa, the number stood
at around one million and in
Yobe at more than 770,000, it
said.

The government has vowed to
defeat the militants
About 250,000 people were
living in camps or with relatives
and friends after being forced
out of their homes, NEMA added.
Nigerian Red Cross Society
representative Soji Adeniyi said
what has happening in the
north-east was unprecedented.
"We have never had this kind of
displacement caused by conflicts
before in the country,'' he is
quoted by Nigeria's privately-
owned This Day newspaper as
saying.

Earlier this month, Boko Haram
fighters attacked an army
barracks in Maiduguri, the
capital of Borno state.
Its fighters also looted and
torched several villages and
towns in the state after
launching attacks with rocket-
propelled grenades and assault
rifles.
Last month, the group was
accused of killing at least 29
people in an attack on a rural
boarding school in Yobe.

Boko Haram has waged an
insurgency since 2009 to create
a strict Islamic state in northern
Nigeria.
The president insists that the
state of emergency has been
effective, saying the militants
have been confined to a small
area near the border with
Cameroon.

Reference: BBC News