Since 2009, north-eastern Nigeria has been affected by a protracted and violent conflict that has led to one of the region’s largest humanitarian crises. Armed violence, insecurity, and repeated displacement have forced an estimated 1.8 million people from their homes, while an additional 200,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring countries such as Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. Across the states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe, more than seven million people require life-saving humanitarian assistance, with many areas only recently becoming accessible to aid organisations.
As humanitarian operations scaled up in response to growing needs, Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, emerged as the central hub for coordination and logistics. However, the operational environment remained highly challenging. Telecommunications infrastructure was either unreliable or non-existent, particularly in newly accessible or conflict-affected areas. This lack of dependable connectivity significantly hindered coordination, information sharing, and overall response effectiveness for humanitarian actors on the ground.
To address these constraints, the Emergency Telecommunications Sector (ETS) was officially activated in Nigeria on 23 November 2016, under the leadership of the World Food Programme (WFP). As part of this coordinated response, and following a request from WFP, the Government of Luxembourg deployed emergency.lu in February 2017 to reinforce communication capabilities in Maiduguri.
A regular emergency.lu deployment kit was installed at the IHP (International Humanitarian Partnership) base camp, which hosted a large number of international responders working across the region. The system provided reliable satellite-based internet connectivity, independent of local infrastructure, ensuring continuous access to communication services in an otherwise unstable environment.
By providing a shared and stable communications platform, emergency.lu significantly improved the efficiency and coherence of the humanitarian response. The IHP base camp in Maiduguri became a fully connected coordination hub, linking field operations with national and international partners despite ongoing instability and infrastructure limitations.
