Providing life-saving support to households in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger directly affected by insecurity in northern Nigeria

This operation has been modified as per budget revision 14.

Since early 2013, returnee and refugee populations have been fleeing northern Nigeria acrossland and water borders to Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Until recently, numbers were relatively low and populations were supported under WFP or partner existing activities. However, growing insecurity in 2014 has led to important peaks in arrivals, most recently in August 2014, and the growing number of arrivals is anticipated to continue. In Cameroon, cross-border insecurity is creating waves of internal displacement, and disrupting normal economic and planting activities in areas of the Far North. 

The influx of refugees, returnees, and internally displaced persons is putting further strain on already stretched environmental resources and basic services across the three receiving countries. Meanwhile, insecurity in northern Nigeria has disrupted traditional cross border trade and herding and impacted market prices in the neighboring countries; as the bread basket for the greater region, there is growing concern regarding the 2014/2015 harvest in Nigeria following from large-scale internal displacement and poor rains.

West Africa Regional Emergency Operation 200777 (EMOP) responds to the evolving situation that is marked by: fast-growing population influxes since August 2014; an emergency nutrition situation observed among newly arriving refugee children; a changing dynamic of arrivals with increasing numbers of female-headed households and children; an internally displaced population in Cameroon; and rising security risks for staff and partners operating in the remote areas.

The EMOP aims to support 238,000 beneficiaries over twelve months. As a regional operation, WFP is able to ensure coherent objectives and strategies across the countries and to support more equitable distribution of resources. Target groups include refugees (Cameroon, Chad, Niger), returnees (Niger), and internally displaced persons (Cameroon). In all three countries, poor and very poor local populations whose access to food has been aggravated as a direct result of the crisis will also receive targeted assistance.