Jens Laerke, for the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said Toby Lanzer, the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, today completed a five-day mission to Niger go assess the humanitarian situation of a country facing multiple crises. He visited the south-eastern region of Diffa, which was particularly affected by violence and insecurity around the Lake Chad basin, before travelling to Agadez, a major transit hub for migrants in West Africa.
The Regional Humanitarian Coordinator visited the Assaga site, which hosted over 6,000 internally displaced persons and refugees from Nigeria who had fled Boko Haram in northern Nigeria. Mr. Lanzer said the women and children he met there expressed an immense despair. Some had been forcibly displaced several times, and young people, in particular, were out of school and had little prospects for the future. Mr. Lanzer also visited the northern town of Agadez, where between 80,000 and 120,000 migrants were expected to transit this year, according to Government’s estimates — a number four times higher than initial estimates.
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