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STORY: UN / BOKO HARAM LANZER
TRT: 02:53
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 12 APRIL 2016, NEW YORK CITY / RECENT
RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
12 APRIL 2016, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Press conference
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Toby Lanzer, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, United Nations:
“I was overwhelmed by the generosity of the people of Maiduguri. I think as a European, there is a real shining example, and perhaps even a lesson or two, when one million people open their doors, welcome and host, for months on end, 1.6 million of their fellows who cannot stay in their villages or on their islands in the Lake Chad Basin.”
4. Med shot, reporter asking a question
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Toby Lanzer, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, United Nations:
“It really beggars belief, doesn’t it, when a violent extremist group straps semtex to a seven-year-old girl’s midriff and sends her into a market to blow her up. I mean for me that’s the epitome of evil.”
6. Med shot, reporter asking a question
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Toby Lanzer, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, United Nations:
“I must say that on occasion I feel a little frustrated that as somebody who leads the humanitarian effort, I have to keep coming back to the international donor community year in-year out to ask for more money to put yet another band aid on people’s wounds. And what I’d like to see from the international community. Is a broader engagement on the stability and security front, on the political track , in terms addressing the key grievances of the population – for example abject poverty or environmental degradation- that therein lies the solution of this situation.”
8. Med shot, reporter asking a question
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Toby Lanzer, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, United Nations:
“Listening to mothers in Northern Cameroon, just a couple of weeks ago, was highly troubling- when they looked at me and said ‘you know, we are so marginalized in this part of the world, that for our sons becoming a gun runner, or a human trafficker, or a bandit or a criminal or worse, is almost the only option for our boys.’”
10. Med shot, reporters taking notes
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Toby Lanzer, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, United Nations:
“The plight of the girls who were taken from their school on the evening of the 14th to the 15th of April in Chibok, Borno State- you know- that is one awful example in a litany of awful examples. The number of girls and boys who have been taken by Boko Haram is in its thousands now, and I think that this really is our calling to do everything we can to stand with populations who are being affected by this sort of violence and to do what we can to support them and the authorities to be free once again.”
12. Zoom out, press conference ending
The United Nations (UN) Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, Toby Lanzer, said Boko Haram’s “horror” continues to wreck the lives of millions of people in the Lake Chad Basin.
Speaking to the press on his recent visit to the region, Lanzer said the scale of destruction and suffering “stared” him in the face. He said in addition to the effects of climate change represented in the contracting of Lake Chad by up to 80% since the 1950’s and extreme poverty, the region has to deal with the “shocking consequences of Boko Haram” which was recently designated as the “deadliest violent extremist group on Earth”.
Lanzer recalled his trip to Northern Nigeria where his team took an 80 km road towards the border with Cameroon. He witnessed “village after village which was completely deserted, totally destroyed- not a goat, a cat, an animal of any sort, and certainly no humans in sight.”
Lanzer said there are over than 3 million displaced in the Lake Chad Basin because of Boko Haram’s activities. He said the city of Maiduguri alone is host to approximately 1.6 million displaced.
The Humanitarian Coordinator also said the UN is working to reach people in the area with lifesaving assistance despite “considerable risk”. He added, “we have to take risks to make sure we reach the people who are arguably the most in need of anywhere where we are working.”
Lanzer said, “It really beggars belief” when a violent extremist group “straps semtex to a seven-year-old girl’s midriff and sends her into a market to blow her up”. He said in January alone, 63 suicide bombers had detonated themselves in north of Cameroon over half of which were girls and women.
He said the plight of the girls who were abducted in April 2014, known as the Chibok girls, “is one awful example in a litany of awful examples.” He said “the number of girls and boys who have been taken by Boko Haram is in its thousands now, and I think that this really is our calling to do everything we can to stand with populations who are being affected by this sort of violence and to do what we can to support them and the authorities to be free once again.”
Lanzer said often in these crisis settings, the international community thinks relief is the answer. He said “relief is not the answer and it never will be.” Lanzer said relief must go hand-in-hand with a broader approach, “buttressing the authorities’ ability to help stabilize the situation, but at the same time to address the pressing development challenges” of the region.
