The Humanitarian Role of NGOs in North-East Nigeria

Nigeria's war against insurgency has dragged on for the past 10 years. War metamorphosed from an internal disturbance to a Non-International armed conflict thus meeting the threshold of intensity and the organization that requires the applicability of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), its principles and rules. The principles of international humanitarian law behind the Principles of Military Necessity, Distinction, Civilian Neutrality, proportionality, protection and treatment of internally displaced persons, etc. are applicable to the scenario to ensure that the human consequences of the conflict are reduced to the barest minimum and to limit the means and methods employed by parties to the conflict. This book seeks to inquire into the role of Non Governmental Organizations in Nigeria in ensuring the applicability of these principles; Reports of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees released in April, 2019 showed that there has been over 8,000 cases of sexual abuse, starvation, silent killing and kidnapping of internally displaced persons across the northeastern part of Nigeria ravaged by Boko Haram. These dastardly acts and many more are revealed herein.