OVERVIEW

The Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) recognized 43 incidents of violence towards or obstruction of well being care in Nigeria in 2022, in comparison with 56 in 2021. In these incidents, 37 well being staff have been kidnapped, seven others have been killed, and well being provides have been looted from pharmacies and well being facilities. This undermined well being care suppliers’ means to keep up protected staffing ranges to successfully meet affected person wants and inventory well being amenities with the required provides. At least 17 incidents came about in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno and Yobe states, with 26 reported elsewhere. This factsheet is predicated on the dataset 2022 SHCC Health Care Nigeria Data, which is obtainable for obtain on the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX).

THE CONTEXT

Insecurity impacting well being care in Nigeria was widespread in 2022. Activity by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) non-state teams in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno and Yobe states affected well being staff and well being provides, whereas the rising presence of armed teams – regionally known as ‘bandits’ – in Niger, Sokoto, and Zamfara states more and more affected well being staff. In southern Nigeria, 29 well being staff have been kidnapped.

VIOLENCE AGAINST OR OBSTRUCTION OF HEALTH CARE IN 2022

Incidents have been reported all through 2022 and continued to be widespread, occurring in 19 of Nigeria’s 36 states. Most incidents affected well being staff working for the nationwide well being construction, whereas 4 have been reported as instantly affecting LNGOs and INGOs. High numbers have been reported in Borno state, the place the looting of medical provides from well being facilities was steadily reported, as was the case in 2021. In distinction to the looting of medical provides, which is concentrated within the north of the nation, well being employee kidnappings and killings have been widespread throughout the nation. Elsewhere, incidents doubled in Zamfara state in 2022 from two in 2021 to 4.

ISWAP fighters have been steadily named as perpetrators of incidents in Borno and Yobe states, with one attributed to Boko Haram in Borno. Nigerian Armed Forces personnel have been named as perpetrators of two incidents that concerned the arrest of a well being employee for treating a ‘bandits’ chief with gunshot accidents in Sokoto state and the deadly stabbing of a feminine INGO well being employee by an intoxicated Nigerian soldier in Borno.1 Members of the Eastern Security Network, a paramilitary group of the Indigenous People of Biafra separatist group, kidnapped a nurse exterior her pharmacy in Enugu in October.2 Other perpetrators of assaults weren’t recognized. In most instances, perpetrators have been armed with firearms. The exceptions have been 4 incidents involving well being amenities and ambulances being set on fireplace by ISWAP fighters in Borno, Kaduna, and Yobe.