OCHA demand exemption to Niger sanctions

While relief is being delivered across Niger, UN humanitarians on Wednesday called for the urgent lift of border and airspace restrictions to allow in more needed aid supplies.

“Significant amounts of urgent medical supplies, nutritious food, equipment, and food stocks are stranded in neighboring countries, and airspace closure affects movements in and out of Niger,” said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), warning about the consequences of the “ongoing crisis” on the humanitarian situation.

“Humanitarian exemptions from border and air closure sanctions are urgently required to allow humanitarian stocks to be replenished,” the office said.

OCHA said in Tahoua, in the country’s southwest, humanitarians provided medical care, reproductive health services and nutrition to over 1,000 people through mobile clinics.

Also in the southwest, the World Food Programme reported that it began food distribution to more than 9,000 refugees from Mali in Tchintabaraden, the office said.

OCHA said that flooding has been reported in Niger, with 88,000 people impacted across the country, and the Maradi region most affected.

“The United Nations is ramping up the response and distributing sanitation kits and shelter items while assessments in newly affected areas continue,” the office said. “Heavy rains are forecast for the coming weeks. This is expected to increase water levels in rivers, including in the capital Niamey.”

The Maradi region is in the country’s south-central region, along the border with Nigeria. Niamey is in the far southwest.