The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Internally Displaced People (IDPs)

  • FG relocated 3,000 IDPs to Bama – IOM

    The International Organisation for Migration ( IOM ) said the Nigerian Government has relocated no fewer than 3,000 Internally Displaced People ( IDPs ) of Bama origin in Borno to their hometown.

    IOM said the relocation followed the reopening of the Maiduguri-Bama-Banki road on March 24 by the Nigerian Military after four years of its closure due to Boko Haram activities.

    The road, which runs from Maiduguri through Konduga, Bama, Gwoza and also connects to the neighbouring countries of Cameroon and Chad, was shut to commercial and public traffic in September 2014.

    In a flash report, IOM said the return had increased the population of people in need of humanitarian assistance.

    IOM said: “Following the reopening of the road, about 3,000 IDPs of Bama origin at Dalori I and II Camps in Maiduguri were relocated to Bama town by the Government of Nigeria, on April 2, 2018.

    “The population of people in need of humanitarian assistance has increased significantly due to the influx, and larger number of returns are expected in the coming days/weeks”.

    The UN migration agency said Bama Local Government Area (LGA) had an IDP population of 49,139 individuals from 14,064 households as per the Displacement Tracking Matrix Round XXI.

    It explained that Bama is the LGA of origin for the largest number of 203,374 of displaced persons in Borno and neighbouring states.

    “Majority of the original population in Bama were displaced to other locations due to insecurity and inaccessibility.

    “Prior to the recent population return to Bama, over 95 per cent of the remaining people in the LGA resided in Banki Camp with 33,081 individuals and Government Secondary School Camp with 16,058 individuals.

    “The Government has rehabilitated some communities in Shehuri and Kasugula wards of Bama, and IDPs are being assisted to return to these rehabilitated areas,” it said.

    Flow monitoring and emergency tracking:

    IOM also presented the displacement emergency tracking in Bama and flow monitoring along Maiduguri-Bama-Banki road showed that since March 24 when the road was reopened.

    The UN agency said: “21 buses with capacity of 75 passengers each and 67 wagons transported about 3,000 returnees from Maiduguri to Bama on April 2.

    “IOM has registered 1,688 new arrivals – returnees – in Bama since April 2, and registration activities are ongoing “.

    It added that 55 trucks carrying relief items and commercial products had made trips to Bama and surrounding locations through the reopened road.

    According to the migration agency, more than 200 public vehicles have been witnessed carrying people to and from Bama.

    The UN agency noted the activities of the Federal Government had mainly through the State Emergency Management Agency and Ministry of Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Reconciliation.

    It said the government functionaries had trucked food items, non-food items, tricycles, small power generators and other logistical items to Bama, with the aim of encouraging people to return to the area.

    IOM said: “Traffic along the road has increased significantly, with flows involving people travelling to Bama for business, individuals visiting to ascertain the safety situation and status of their properties.

    “And many who are returning to their homes due to the improved access. It is estimated that about 4,100 people have moved along the newly opened road since March 24th”.

    NAN

  • ‘NAF medical outreach in IDPs camps, Borno, successful’

    ‘NAF medical outreach in IDPs camps, Borno, successful’

    The medical outreach of the Nigerian Air Force ( NAF ) in Borno is yielding result with the successful general and eye surgeries performed on 69 Internally Displaced people ( IDPs ) from various camps.

    The NAF’s spokesman, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya, who disclosed this in a statement on Friday in Abuja, said that the programme would be extended to over 4,000 IDPs in Monguno.

    Adesanya quoted the NAF’s Chief of Medical Services Branch, AVM Saleh Shinkafi, as saying that the programme was designed to get the support of the locals in the conflict areas.

    According to him, during the programme, free medical treatment will be provided to IDPs.

    “There number could increase as a result of the intensive day and night aerial bombardments by NAF.

    “The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, had also directed that surgeries be conducted, at no cost to the IDPs, for those requiring surgical interventions.

    “A team of additional medical specialists has been deployed to NAF 105 Composite Group Medical Centre to augment the existing medical manpower for the programme.

    “Upon deployment, the medical team immediately started attending to critical surgical cases in IDP camps around Maiduguri.

    “So far, NAF medical outreach team has successfully performed 21 general surgeries and 48 eye surgeries on IDPs from the various camps at no cost to them,” Shinkafi was quoted as saying.

    Adesanya said the director said further that another set of 250 will benefit from free surgical interventions within the 2-day period.

    “This is the fifth cycle of free surgical interventions lined up by NAF for the IDPs in the past two years, during which an average of 200 surgeries were carried out per cycle,” he said.

    The NAF commenced Operation “RUWAN WUTA II”, a few days ago, to further degrade the capability of the insurgents.

    NAN

  • United Nation International Day of Charity

    United Nation International Day of Charity

    By Moses Emorinken

    …what do you see?

    When you fix your gaze upon the indigents and less privileged, what do you see? Do you see a people requiring your pity or you see the fierce urgency for you to grow (financially, materially and otherwise) in order to be the change you want to see in the world?

    Prima facie, you might think all they require is your unrestrained show of sympathy and the giving of alms and hand-outs. Yes they do require these things and more, however, that is not all you can do. They do not perpetually require your pity or periodic pittance, but that you grow, evolve and manifest into the full stature of your potential and latent possibilities. By doing so, you will not only have and possess enough to make substantial contributions to assuage their plight but your story and presence will automatically give them the opportunity and permission to do the same.

    Also Read: UN seeks more investment in women, peace in Nigeria

    As we mark the United Nations’ ( UN ) International Day of Charity whose prime focus is to raise awareness and provide a common platform for charity related activities all over the world for individuals, charitable, philanthropic and volunteer organizations for their own purposes on the local, national, regional and international level, it is also imperative that we realise that charity is the rent we pay for our stay on this terraqueous globe we call earth. The moment we cease to pay our rent (charity), we lost our essence, our usefulness – our raison d’être; the landlord (God, Creator, Nature etc.) will kick us out with or without quit notice.

    Every year, charities all over the world help to save and improve people’s lives, fighting disease, protecting children, and giving hope to thousands of people. To honour the significant effort that a good number charities do, in 2012 the United Nations decided to designate the 5th of September, an annual International Day of Charity as an official day of recognition and celebration. The reason the date was chosen is because it is the anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa. It memorializes the assiduous and untiring work that Mother Teresa did by devoting her entire life to charity.

    This is not the time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilising drug gradualism; this is the time for us to lift our people from the dark and desolate valleys of poverty to the sunlit path of material prosperity. It would be a fatal blunder for us as a people to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the extent to which our contributions to humanity can echo through time.

    Statistically, the percentage of those living below the poverty line in our dear country averages between (55% – 67%); this is a staggering number. For far too long, a significant portion of Nigerians live on the lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. These statistics gives credence to fact that individuals, private organisations, non-governmental organisations and the government needs to intensify effort and synergise to combat and defeat extreme poverty in the country.

    Contemplating how to begin your charity journey? You can start exactly where you are with what you have. As simple as ensuring that one or two pupils from indigent families get notebooks, pens and pencils will go a long way to alleviate their sundry worries even as schools resume.

    Also, reaching out to the Internally Displaced People (IDPs), destitute living under the bridges, to the children living in the slum, and those in the remand and orphanage homes etc., will also go a long way. Let us as much as we can reach out to them today regardless of how little we have – even our widow’s might would be appreciated.

    If you do your charity to get a social recognition or for political reasons, be rest assured that it would be tantamount to a show and a bauble; a theatrical calisthenics to which posterity will never be impressed by or with.

    Reach out and touch a life with all sincerity and altruistic intensions.

    Finally, remember that the choices and actions you take today will ripple through time, and has the ability to alter fates and destinies; so much literally rests in our hands.

    Contact Moses Emorinken

    Twitter: @memorinken

    Instagram: @memorinken

    Email: brandphase@yahoo.com

  • FG urged to prosecute those responsible for diverting materials for IDPs

    FG urged to prosecute those responsible for diverting materials for IDPs

    The Federal Government has been urged to prosecute those responsible for diverting relief materials meant for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) across the country.

    Speaking against the background of the alleged diversion of date fruits meant for IDPs in the northeast donated by Saudi Arabia, as well as that of relief materials meant for Bakassi IDPs in Cross River, former presidential adviser, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, stressed that anyone found culpable should be made to face the full wrath of the law.

    Speaking with our reporter in Calabar, Monday, she said said no one should be above the law.

    “Today I read on the backpage of The Nation that Nigeria has had to apologize to Saudi Arabia because they sent truckloads of dates for IDPs and it ended up in the market.

    “Those that are behind the selling of the dates meant for the IDPs should be prosecuted, just like those who diverted relief materials meant for Bakassi people should also be.

    “We also have to apologize to the Federal Government for those who stole the relief materials meant for Bakassi IDPs. All those who signed and collected should be prosecuted,” she said.

    Ita-Giwa, popularly known as Mama Bakassi had earlier called on the Federal Government to probe the distribution of relief materials across the country.

    Speaking with reporters on the alleged diversion of relief materials for Bakassi IDPs, she had said, “This incident is an eye opener and I believe it has been happening for a long time. With this discovery now, I am calling on the Federal Government to investigate the mode of distribution of relief materials to IDPs all over the nation, not just Cross River State. Because maybe most of those things they claim they have been sending to those people end up in the markets. This is an example. Government would be wasting money, thinking that they are rehabilitating people, thinking they are intervening, whereas those things are not getting to the people. So they must be investigated.”