The United Nations has launched an appeal to raise slightly over $174 million to support refugees who have fled from northern Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamist insurgency.
The Thursday’s launch comes amid rising numbers of refugees that owe to the numerous attacks in Africa’s once most populous country.
Boko Haram fighters have killed thousands of people in their six-year bid to create an Islamist emirate in northeastern Nigeria.
The United Natios has said that in addition to the refugees, there are more than 1.1 million people displaced within northeast Nigeria by Boko Haram, adding the number of refugees fleeing in to Chad, Niger and Cameroon could increase by the end of this year.
The refugees, some of whom walked or even swam long distances to escape the violence, are spread out across the countries bordering Lake Chad in a mostly arid zone that encompasses some of the poorest regions of the world.
