26-06-2019 | di COOPI

Nigeria. A new three-year project has just started

More than 26,875 families, IDPs and other vulnerable groups in Yobe State, Nigeria, will benefit from the European Union-funded project "Building Resilience in Complex Crisis - BRICC", launched on June 18^th, in Damaturu.

The 36-month initiative aims to strengthen the recovery and resilience of the Yobe population and support them to cope with the shocks and stresses of conflict, climate change and complex crisis.

As Modestus Chukwulaka of the European Union delegation in Nigeria pointed out, "the BRICC project will support 6,719 men, 6,719 women, 6,719 young men and 6,718 young women to meet their immediate early recovery needs and enhance their social protection outcomes. At the same time, it will engage with Yobe communities and local leadership to revitalise markets and livelihoods, enhance conflict mitigation systems, and create the conditions to facilitate systemic change.”

Launch of the BRICC project on Tuesday, June 18th in Damaturu

COOPI will therefore contribute to provide humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable populations directly affected by the Boko Haram crisis in the northeast of Nigeria, by strengthening food security, providing access to food and supplementary feeding, focusing on the prevention of acute malnutrition in children and pregnant or breastfeeding women, and providing access to clean and safe water.

To improve the resilience of the Yobe communities, market needs will be met to strengthen economic responsiveness, to facilitate a restart of trade and to increase productivity, in consortium with Mercy Corps and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC).

Over the past few years, the humanitarian situation in Nigeria has been increasingly deteriorating because the conflict between government forces and the Boko Haram armed group has intensified. Humanitarian actors estimate 17 million people affected by the conflict are food insecure, while 3 million young people have dropped out of the school system and 500,000 children suffer from severe malnutrition.

Since July 2014, COOPI has been responding to this emergency in the States of Borno and Yobe, by focusing on food distribution, malnutrition prevention and care, education in emergency and child protection.

Cover photo credits: Giovanni Vezzani