The United Nations Security Council Visiting Mission to Lake Chad Basin Region will arrive in Maiduguri, Borno State, on Sunday. On Monday, the Mission will go to Abuja to meet with the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

Matt Moody, Spokesperson and Head of Communications, UK Mission to the UN, said: “on Day 5 of the UK Presidency, the Security Council will transfer to Maiduguri, Nigeria.

They will meet local officials and civil society organisations before visiting an IDP camps.

“On Day 6 of the UK Presidency (Monday), the Security Council will meet Civil Society Organisations, Women’s Groups, and leaders of the Nigerian Government in Abuja.”

The visit is part of the UN Security Council’s mission under the UK Presidency, to the areas devastated by Boko Haram terrorists in the countries of the Lake Chad Basin – Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

The mission to Nigeria is aimed at enabling the UN body to get first-hand information on the various issues affecting the country.

This will be the first time the UN Security Council is visiting Nigeria.

With the on-going crisis in the Northeast and other challenges faced by the country, the delegation will use the mission to engage with federal and state authorities.

The Council will also engage actors on the ground supporting national response efforts and visit selected affected populations.

The delegation will have engagement with journalists in Maiduguri at 5 p.m. on Sunday and Abuja at 7 p.m. on Monday.

The delegation is led by Amb. Matthew Rycroft, UK Permanent Representative to the UN and the Security Council’s President for the month of March.

They had earlier visited Cameroon, Chad and will leave to Niger on Saturday night.

“First of all, we came here in order to shine a spotlight on the situation in the Lake Chad Basin.

“We came to hear the individual stories of people involved, whether they are refugees or displaced people or other victims of Boko Haram.

“We stand with the government and the people of Cameroon, and the wider region, in tackling the scourge of terrorism.

“And in encouraging them to look broadly and deeply at the root causes of the set of crises going on here.

“Whether humanitarian, to do with development, to do with education, agriculture and so on,” Rycroft said on Friday in Cameroon.

NAN reports that the UN says no fewer than 4.8 million people are now in urgent need of food assistance and 5.1 million are predicted to be food insecure if not supported by the humanitarian community in 2017.

The UN said that an estimated 300,000 children in Borno alone will suffer from severe acute malnutrition over the next 12 months and up to 450,000 in total across Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, if adequate assistance is not received. (Prudence Arobani/NAN)

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