Mr. Zannah Mustapha, the Nigerian mediator who brokered a deal for the release of dozens of Chibok schoolgirls captured by Boko Haram, has been named this year’s winner of the Nansen Refugee Award run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The Nansen Refugee Award recognizes extraordinary humanitarian work on behalf of refugees, the internally displaced or stateless people. The United Nations’ refugee agency, announced this week that the 2017 recipient of the award is Mustapha, a lawyer and mediator from Borno State in Northeast Nigeria.
The agency said Mustapha received the prestigious award in recognition of his efforts to improve the lives of displaced children and widows distraught by the regional conflict with Boko Haram. “The work Mustapha and his team are doing is of the utmost importance, helping to foster peaceful coexistence and rebuild communities in northeastern Nigeria. With this award, we honor his vision and service,” said the boss of the UNHCR, FilippoGrandi, in a statement.
Since Boko Haram launched its brutal insurgency in northern Nigeria in 2009, more than 20,000 people have been killed, thousands of women and girls have been abducted and children have been drafted into the terrorist group’s ranks as suicide bombers. Up to 2.1 million residents fled their homes in Nigeria at the height of the conflict — 1.9 million of whom are currently internally displaced — while over 200,000 others remain in neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, where they were forced to flee, according to the latest data from the UN.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of children in Nigeria are growing up without schooling, as the West African nation’s education sector is strained by its swelling youth population, and education facilities in the northeast remain under attack by Boko Haram militants, who have destroyed countless schools and killed hundreds of teachers in the past eight years. “Conflict can leave children with physical and emotional scars that are deep and lasting. It forces them from their homes, exposes them to unspeakable atrocities, and often rips apart their families,” Grandi said in a statement. “Education is one of the most powerful tools for helping refugee children overcome the horrors of violence and forced displacement. It empowers young people, equips them with skills and works to counter exploitation and recruitment by armed groups.”
In 2007, Mustapha founded the Future Prowess Islamic Foundation School for orphans and vulnerable children in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State and the birthplace of Boko Haram. The school currently provides free education to 540 students, half of which are girls. Four times as many children are on a waiting list, according to UNHCR.
