The Federal Government of Nigeria has lamented the global humanitarian crisis as over 70.8 million forcefully displaced persons (FDPS) globally including 3.3 million FDPs comprising 2.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northeast Nigeria.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management & Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq disclosed this in Abuja yesterday at the Nigerian Consultation Meeting on the Global Compact on Refugees adding that Nigeria had the highest number and carried the heaviest burden of the humanitarian challenge.
She said that Global Compact on Refugees has opened a vista of opportunity for stakeholders to access support in a timely, predictable and sustainable manner while creating an incentive for stakeholder to join forces and pull resources to address the humanitarian challenge.
“Nigerian government has been providing support for refugees through the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and IDPS.
We have over the years increased our assistance and support in response to the influx of Cameroonian refugees,” Farouq said. Meanwhile, the representative of United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to Nigeria, Mr Antonio Canhandula, has revealed that more than 900,000 displaced persons as a result of Boko Haram insurgency have returned to their home state of Adamawa.
He said this number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has returned to their local government areas in Adamawa because the areas were now safe. He noted that the only two local governments of Michika and Madawagali near the Borno State that was not yet safe for the return of the indigenes displaced by the insurgency.
He, however, lamented that the conditions of some of these returnees remain very poor because of the lack of infrastructure to accommodate them. He also revealed that some of the IDPs have returned to Yobe State, explaining that the figure was however lower than that of Adamawa.
“What we have today is a situation where the South of Borno is peaceful but the North remains quite unstable. We are talking of 1.2 million internally displaced populations that we have access to,” he said.
He noted that the total population of IDPs that are accessible was different from the number that receives assistance.
On the number of Nigerians displaced out of the country, as a result, Boko Haram insurgency, he disclosed 94, 000 are refugees in Cameroon, in Chad 12,000, and in Niger 112,000.
SOURCE: Vanguard Nigeria
