Action Against Hunger ‘FED BOKO HARAM,’ Nigerian Army claims, as its SHUTS the NGO’s offices

The Nigerian Army, operating in the country’s besieged northeast, has shut the offices of NGO Action Against Hunger (AAH). The group is accused of aiding terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).

AAH ignored repeated warnings to cease “aiding and abetting terrorist groups” by supplying them with food and medicine, Colonel Ado Isa, deputy director of army public relations, said, as the staff were ordered by soldiers to close the main office in Maiduguri, Borno State. 

“The subversive… actions of the NGO Action Against Hunger persisted despite several warnings to desist from aiding and abetting terrorists and their atrocities,” Isa said in a statement on Thursday. He added that the group has been declared an entity “non-grata.”

© AFP / AUDU MARTE

The NGO disputed this and said it has not been presented with any evidence to show they’ve been assisting terrorists. It added that an AAH staff member and five others were kidnapped by IS militants in July. 

“Action Against Hunger delivers neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian aid to millions of people in Borno State by providing basic services to the most vulnerable, especially women and children,” the group said in a statement, adding that it would make “no further comments at this stage.”

The Nigerian government has been battling an Islamist insurgency in the northeast for over over a decade. A total of 2.4 million people have been displaced by Boko Haram terrorists and the fight against them in the Chad Basin, the UN refugee agency UNHCR estimates. Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) split from Boko Haram in 2016. 

The military has repeatedly clashed with NGOs operating in the region, going so far as to suspend UNICEF activities in the embattled Borno State last December over allegations that staff were training terrorists. The army also accused Amnesty International Nigeria of making false claims that it’s soldiers had committed human rights violations.

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