Oxfam is closing its administrative office in Maiduguri and operating base in Pulka after a two-year operation that reached in total 470,000 local people with humanitarian water and sanitation and food aid.
Oxfam has been scaling-back this humanitarian program specifically in Damboa and Gwoza for the past few months. Oxfam’s long-term development programs throughout the rest of Nigeria will continue as normal, as will its humanitarian responses in neighbouring Chad and Niger.
Oxfam (West African) Regional Director, Adama Coulibaly said that Oxfam had tried hard over two years to reach more people over a greater geographical area and at a fast pace. However, the expansion had been an over-ambitious and Oxfam could not continue to over-commit itself. Oxfam was extremely proud of the work it had accomplished as a small but important part of the overall international humanitarian response in north-east Nigeria.
“It was grateful to have had the full appreciation of people in the communities and is confident, after discussions with other agencies, that it’s work will be carried on and hopefully even expanded upon” said Coulibaly.