The crisis in Northeast Nigeria has reached an inflection point.
Secretary Tillerson Should Promote Safety and Rights of Displaced People During his Trip to Sub-Saharan Africa
As U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson embarks on a multi-nation trip to sub-Saharan Africa, Refugees International delivered a letter to the secretary urging the Trump administration to use this critical opportunity to reaffirm U.S. humanitarian support, while advocating for policies that promote the safety, dignity, and rights of refugees and displaced populations in the sub-Saharan region.
Security, Not Politics, Should Determine Returns to Bama
When the militant group Boko Haram took over in 2013, the majority of Bama, Nigeria’s population those fled and have yet to return. Nigerian forces successfully recaptured Bama in 2015, and, recently, the city has become the focus of highly publicized reconstruction plans and along with plans for the return of its former residents. But the security situation in surrounding areas remains perilous. With approaching Nigerian elections in 2019, the government wants to return people to Bama, but security and stability should dictate returns, not politics.
The Global Compact on Refugees: What Can We Expect?
Responding to the current global refugee crisis, the UN General Assembly in September 2016 convened a special meeting to examine the effectiveness of the international community’s response to mass movements of people. That meeting lead to two important outcomes, with the third – the Global Compact on Migration – still pending. Jeff Crisp argues that the formulation of a Global Compact represents an invaluable opportunity to reassess, revise and reinvigorate the international community’s efforts to protect and find solutions for the world’s refugees.
Cameroon: We Cannot Wait to Act
As tensions between English- and French-speaking communities in Cameroon continue to rise, RI Advocate Alexandra Lamarche calls on the United States and the international community to facilitate talks between the factions while this emerging crisis can still be mitigated.
Testimony by Eric Schwartz on the Four Famines
Refugees International’s Eric Schwartz testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Multilateral International Development and Multilateral Institutions.
NGO Letter to Congress on Supplemental Funding to Respond to Famines
As 43 organizations working on humanitarian and development issues in some of the world’s poorest countries, we write to ask for your support in providing an additional $1 billion in supplemental funding for fiscal year 2017 in order to adequately respond to famine and famine-like conditions across four countries.
NGO Statement: Seven Steps to Saving Lives and Assisting People in Nigeria and Lake Chad Basin
A violent eight-year conflict originating in Nigeria has intensified in the last four years and spread across borders into Niger, Chad and Cameroon, resulting in Africa’s biggest humanitarian and protection crisis.
Nigeria’s Displaced Women and Girls: Humanitarian Community at Odds, Boko Haram’s Survivors Forsaken
The world looked on in horror as Boko Haram abducted 271 girls from their high school in Chibo. But attention has not translated into sustained humanitarian assistance for those in need in the region.
Boko Haram – One Survivor’s Story
I met Amara earlier this week in the office of a local grassroots organization in Borno state’s capital, Maiduguri. Amara, a pretty, cherub-faced girl, was accompanied by her mother with whom she had been reunited just six weeks prior, after a one year-long separation. Their separation was not voluntary. Over a year ago, Amara had…