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AFP
Abuja
The Nigerian military lifted a ban on UNICEF operations in the ravaged northeast late Friday after earlier suspending the aid agency and accusing it of training “spies” supporting Boko Haram jihadists.
The military earlier Friday said the United Nations children’s agency had this week held workshops in the northeast city of Maiduguri training people for “clandestine” activities that were “sabotaging” counterterrorism efforts.
Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency has killed more than 27,000 people since it began in 2009 and has triggered a humanitarian crisis in the wider Lake Chad region, where the jihadists have stepped up attacks in recent months.
But after a meeting between the military and the aid agency late Friday, army spokesman Onyema Nwachukwu said the ban had been revoked following an “intervention by well meaning and concerned Nigerians. During the meeting, the Theatre Command admonished the representatives of the organisation to desist from activities inimical to Nigeria’s national security and capable of undermining the ongoing fight against terrorism and insurgency,” he said in a statement.
“The Command also urged UNICEF representatives to ensure they share information with relevant authorities whenever induction or training of new staff is being conducted in the theatre,”Nwachukwu said.
He said after extensive deliberations “the Theatre Command has henceforth lifted the three months suspension earlier imposed on UNICEF activities in northeastern Nigeria”.
Nwachukwu had earlier said there was “credible information that some (UNICEF representatives) are indulging in unwholesome practices that could further jeopardise the fight against terrorism and insurgency, as they train and deploy spies who support the insurgents and their sympathisers” and that UNICEF operations would therefore be suspended until further notice.
Abuja
The Nigerian military lifted a ban on UNICEF operations in the ravaged northeast late Friday after earlier suspending the aid agency and accusing it of training “spies” supporting Boko Haram jihadists.
The military earlier Friday said the United Nations children’s agency had this week held workshops in the northeast city of Maiduguri training people for “clandestine” activities that were “sabotaging” counterterrorism efforts.
Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency has killed more than 27,000 people since it began in 2009 and has triggered a humanitarian crisis in the wider Lake Chad region, where the jihadists have stepped up attacks in recent months.
But after a meeting between the military and the aid agency late Friday, army spokesman Onyema Nwachukwu said the ban had been revoked following an “intervention by well meaning and concerned Nigerians. During the meeting, the Theatre Command admonished the representatives of the organisation to desist from activities inimical to Nigeria’s national security and capable of undermining the ongoing fight against terrorism and insurgency,” he said in a statement.
“The Command also urged UNICEF representatives to ensure they share information with relevant authorities whenever induction or training of new staff is being conducted in the theatre,”Nwachukwu said.
He said after extensive deliberations “the Theatre Command has henceforth lifted the three months suspension earlier imposed on UNICEF activities in northeastern Nigeria”.
Nwachukwu had earlier said there was “credible information that some (UNICEF representatives) are indulging in unwholesome practices that could further jeopardise the fight against terrorism and insurgency, as they train and deploy spies who support the insurgents and their sympathisers” and that UNICEF operations would therefore be suspended until further notice.
