TABLE OF CONTENTS

NIGERIA
Over the past six years, the government of Nigeria has
been in conflict with the militant Islamist group Boko
Haram in the northeastern part of the country. 118 The
insurgents have engaged in abductions, rapes, forced
recruitment, and killings of the local population and
abducted and threatened health workers, attacked health
facilities, and disrupted medical supply delivery. 119
The government declared a state of emergency, which
has since expired in affected states. Since 2012, the
government reports that Boko Haram is responsible for
the destruction of 445 health facilities. In that time, four
doctors have died in Yobe State and two in Maiduguri,
Borno State, and 152 have been severely injured. 120
Most health facilities in the area have shut down due
to the conflict, severely disrupting access to health
services. 121 Access is also hindered by the counterinsurgency
response, including the banning of motorcycles
and the interruption of mobile phone service. 122 Many
health workers have fled the region in fear for their
lives. 123 The Nigerian government announced in March
2016 that it was making an effort to address the health
worker shortages due to the presence of insurgents. 124
Health workers are vulnerable to violence and extortion
from individuals not necessarily affiliated or suspected of
affiliation with Boko Haram and in parts of the country
where the group does not operate. In February 2016,
health workers fled towns in the Delta State, as their
health facilities were forced to shut down following the
more-than-two-week siege on the riverine communities
by soldiers hunting for pipeline bombers. 128 In February
2016, an armed policeman shot a doctor during a
peaceful protest by members of the Nigerian Medical
Association in Owerri, Imo State. The president of the
Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, alleged it wasn’t
uncommon for health workers to be the victims of these
sorts of assaults. 129 In March 2016, four health workers
administering polio vaccines in Gazamari village in Kaduna
State were kidnapped. 130 A resident said the kidnappers
demanded 10 million naira (about $50,000) for the release
of the local government area polio facilitator, and 2 million
naira (about $10,000) for the release of other two health
workers and a field volunteer. 131
Although there were fewer attacks on health workers
and facilities reported in 2015 than in previous years,
assaults continue. In May 2015, a senior nurse with the
Federal Medical Centre, Ido Ekiti, Margaret Aladeneka,
was abducted by unknown attackers. Five days later the
former chief medical director of Ekiti State University
Teaching Hospital and his wife were also kidnapped. 125
The chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association in Ekiti
State, Dr. John Akinbote, reported that seven doctors in
Ado-Ekiti received threats from kidnappers. 126 According
to MSF, as a result of destruction in prior years, none of
the hospitals outside of Maiduguri and Biu in Borno State
were functioning in July 2015, as many of them were
destroyed with bombs and those that weren’t destroyed
were looted. 127
MAY 2016
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