尼日利亞有5萬人面臨餓死危險

The UN has warned that 50,000 Nigerians, ensnared by an insurgency that the government says has been all but defeated, are at risk of starving to death.

聯合國(UN)警告稱，尼日利亞有5萬人正面臨餓死的危險。該國正爆發叛亂，尼日利亞政府表示幾乎已將其挫敗。

Large rural areas in Borno State in Nigeria’s north-east are too dangerous both for UN staff to get to and for civilians to escape from, the UN has told the Financial Times.

聯合國告訴英國《金融時報》，尼日利亞東北部博爾諾州的大片農村地區太過危險，聯合國人員無法進入，平民也無法逃離。

Some 54,000 people are believed to be living in a “catastrophic” situation, the highest level of food emergency in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a scale used to grade the nature and severity of such crises.

據信，大約5.4萬人生活在“災難性”狀況中，根據聯合國衡量糧食安全危機性質和嚴重程度的標準——糧食安全階段綜合分類(Integrated Food Security Phase Classification)——他們處於最高級別的糧食緊急狀況中。

Another 780,000 people in Borno and two neighbouring north-eastern states are in the second-highest category of hunger-related emergency. Some 3.9m people in the north-east need food assistance because their livelihoods have been disrupted by the conflict.

在博爾諾和臨近的尼日利亞東北部兩個州，另有78萬人處於第二高級別的飢餓狀況中。在尼日利亞東北部，約有390萬人需要食品援助，因爲國內衝突破壞了他們的生計。

Mobile networks in the north-east have been destroyed, hindering UN attempts to verify the extent of the crisis and to publicise the impending disaster.

尼日利亞東北部的移動網絡受到破壞，這阻礙了聯合國確認危機嚴重程度和將迫在眉睫的災難公諸於衆。

Unlike in Syria, where photographs of starving residents distributed by activists sparked intervention to break the siege of Madaya, there are no photos of starving Nigerians to galvanise a response.

與敘利亞不同，沒有任何有關飢餓的尼日利亞人的照片來促使外界做出迴應。而在敘利亞，活動人士發佈的飢餓居民的照片引發瞭解除馬達雅(Madaya)所受圍困的干預。

President Muhammadu Buhari said last year that Boko Haram had been “militarily degraded” aFTer the army won back territory and towns seized by militants in 2014. But most of the “liberated” areas are still not accessible to aid agencies because of security concerns, according to the UN.

去年，尼日利亞總統穆罕默杜布哈里(Muhammadu Buhari)表示，在2014年軍隊奪回被武裝分子佔領的土地和城鎮後，博科哈拉姆(Boko Haram)的“軍事實力已被削弱”。但據聯合國稱，由於安全擔憂，援助組織仍無法進入多數“已被解放”的地區。

“We are finding it very difficult to access most parts of Borno State where the need is the highest,” Toby Lanzer, the UN’s top official in west Africa, told the FT.

聯合國駐西非最高官員託比瀠澤爾(Toby Lanzer)告訴英國《金融時報》：“我們發現進入最需要援助的博爾諾州的多數地區非常困難。”

Although the army has regained control of most towns and villages, it has not secured vast rural stretches where militants are still moving freely, say western diplomats and security officials.

西方外交和安全官員表示，儘管尼日利亞軍隊重新控制了多數城鎮和村莊，但尚未奪取武裝分子仍在自由活動的大片農村地區。

Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians fled to the Borno State capital of Maiduguri in 2014 during the height of the insurgency. But those who stayed in their villages or were displaced have no route to safer ground and are at risk because relief cannot reach them.

2014年，在叛亂最嚴重時期，數十萬尼日利亞人逃往博爾諾州首府邁杜古裏。但那些留在村子裏的人或流離失所的人卻無法到達更安全的地方，由於無法獲得救濟，他們正面臨危險。

Femi Adesina, Mr Buhari’s spokesman, nevertheless told the FT that the government had full access to the north-east.

然而，布哈里的發言人費米阿德西納(Femi Adesina)告訴英國《金融時報》，尼日利亞政府完全可以進入該國東北部地區。

The “famine-like” conditions in Nigeria have been caused by “very unfortunate circumstances rather than a deliberate ploy to trap people”, Mr Lanzer added.

蘭澤爾補充稱，尼日利亞“類似饑荒”的狀況是由“非常不幸的局勢、而非故意困住民衆的陰謀”導致的。

The “stuck” communities cannot sustain themselves, Mr Lanzer said, as they are unable to move their cattle for grazing, farm their land or trade across northern borders as they have done for centuries.

蘭澤爾表示，這些“被困住”的地區無法維持自己的生計，因爲人們無法像幾個世紀以來所做的那樣逐草放牛、耕種土地或跨過北部邊境從事貿易。

He warned that if the UN and the government “don’t manage to help people get out and trade and farm and tend to their livestock”, the crisis could worsen dramatically.

他警告稱，如果聯合國和尼日利亞政府“不能幫助人們走出困境、從事貿易、耕種土地和照管自己的牲畜”，這場危機可能會嚴重惡化。

Critics say the UN’s response has been no more urgent than the government’s, and blame the agency for not making greater efforts to reach the hardest hit communities.

批評者表示聯合國的迴應並不比尼日利亞政府更緊急，他們指責聯合國未能做出更大努力進入受到最嚴重打擊的地區。

“It’s about the political will to access them. We could be in a lot of places we’re not,” said an Abuja-based UN aide.

駐阿布賈的一名聯合國助理表示：“這關乎進入這些地區的政治意願。我們可以進入我們現在沒有進入的許多地區。

“The question is, will be able to reach them in time?”

“問題是，我們能及時進入這些地區嗎？”