尼日利亚有5万人面临饿死危险

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.

联合国(UN)警告称，尼日利亚有5万人正面临饿死的危险。该国正爆发叛乱，尼日利亚政府表示几乎已将其挫败。

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.

联合国告诉英国《金融时报》，尼日利亚东北部博尔诺州的大片农村地区太过危险，联合国人员无法进入，平民也无法逃离。

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.

据信，大约5.4万人生活在“灾难性”状况中，根据联合国衡量粮食安全危机性质和严重程度的标准——粮食安全阶段综合分类(Integrated Food Security Phase Classification)——他们处于最高级别的粮食紧急状况中。

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.

在博尔诺和临近的尼日利亚东北部两个州，另有78万人处于第二高级别的饥饿状况中。在尼日利亚东北部，约有390万人需要食品援助，因为国内冲突破坏了他们的生计。

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.

尼日利亚东北部的移动网络受到破坏，这阻碍了联合国确认危机严重程度和将迫在眉睫的灾难公诸于众。

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.

与叙利亚不同，没有任何有关饥饿的尼日利亚人的照片来促使外界做出回应。而在叙利亚，活动人士发布的饥饿居民的照片引发了解除马达雅(Madaya)所受围困的干预。

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，尼日利亚总统穆罕默杜布哈里(Muhammadu Buhari)表示，在2014年军队夺回被武装分子占领的土地和城镇后，博科哈拉姆(Boko Haram)的“军事实力已被削弱”。但据联合国称，由于安全担忧，援助组织仍无法进入多数“已被解放”的地区。

“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.

联合国驻西非最高官员托比瀠泽尔(Toby Lanzer)告诉英国《金融时报》：“我们发现进入最需要援助的博尔诺州的多数地区非常困难。”

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.

西方外交和安全官员表示，尽管尼日利亚军队重新控制了多数城镇和村庄，但尚未夺取武装分子仍在自由活动的大片农村地区。

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，在叛乱最严重时期，数十万尼日利亚人逃往博尔诺州首府迈杜古里。但那些留在村子里的人或流离失所的人却无法到达更安全的地方，由于无法获得救济，他们正面临危险。

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

然而，布哈里的发言人费米阿德西纳(Femi Adesina)告诉英国《金融时报》，尼日利亚政府完全可以进入该国东北部地区。

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

兰泽尔补充称，尼日利亚“类似饥荒”的状况是由“非常不幸的局势、而非故意困住民众的阴谋”导致的。

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.

兰泽尔表示，这些“被困住”的地区无法维持自己的生计，因为人们无法像几个世纪以来所做的那样逐草放牛、耕种土地或跨过北部边境从事贸易。

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.

他警告称，如果联合国和尼日利亚政府“不能帮助人们走出困境、从事贸易、耕种土地和照管自己的牲畜”，这场危机可能会严重恶化。

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.

批评者表示联合国的回应并不比尼日利亚政府更紧急，他们指责联合国未能做出更大努力进入受到最严重打击的地区。

“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.

驻阿布贾的一名联合国助理表示：“这关乎进入这些地区的政治意愿。我们可以进入我们现在没有进入的许多地区。

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

“问题是，我们能及时进入这些地区吗？”