Nigeria, Nov. 8 -- About 1.2 million civilians are trapped and have been denied access to humanitarian aid and services in two local government areas now largely under the control of Boko Haram, Edward Kallon, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, said.

Mr Kallon also revealed that humanitarian workers have, in the past 18 months, become major targets of the insurgents.

Delivering a keynote address at the ongoing International Civil-security summit in Maiduguri, the top UN official in Nigeria said the situation on the ground in the Northeast does not "give room for fiction."

Noting that the decade-old Boko Haram crisis has claimed the lives of over 35,000 people in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states, Mr Kallon stressed the urgent need f...