Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 29th Dec. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Thursday has voiced “deep concerns over the series of attacks on communities in central Nigeria, which left at least 150 people dead and many more injured.
Mr. Volker Türk called on the authorities to conduct prompt, thorough and independent investigations into the attacks that took place on Christmas Eve and to hold those responsible to account in fair trials, in a statement issued in New York.
It stated that the violence occurred in the Plateau state, an ethnically and religiously diverse region, where inter-communal conflict has claimed hundreds of lives in recent years.
Mr. Turk said that “The cycle of impunity fuelling recurrent violence must be urgently broken,”.
“The Government should also take meaningful steps to address the underlying root causes and to ensure non-recurrence of this devastating violence,” he added.
OHCHR noted that Nigeria is battling a complex humanitarian crisis intertwined with climate change impacts and a deadly conflict in the country’s northeast regions.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs over 8.3 million people need assistance in Nigeria, with attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure driving vulnerability and impeding across the nation.
OCHA said that the protection needs are high for women and girls, due to violence, abduction, rape and other forms of gender-based violence.
Children are at risk of forced recruitment,when unaccompanied or separated from their families. Conflict and insecurity have cut people off from their agricultural production, resulting in food insecurity, it added.
UN said that climate change is also increasing humanitarian needs at an alarming rate.
In 2022, Nigeria experienced its worst floods in over two decades, which affected 4.4 million people.
The flooding was a major contributor to the spread of cholera that killed 390 people in Borno state alone, it concluded.
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