Boko Haram: Federal Lawmaker Raises Alarm over Deteriorating Humanitarian Crisis
The Humanitarian crisis in the Northeast has deteriorated in the last one week, owing to recent attacks on remote Nigerian towns and villages by Boko Haram insurgents.
As of today, January 3, 2018, relevant authorities have registered more than 12,000 individuals and 3,500 households new IDPs in Borno State alone, therefore swelling up Nigeria’s displaced population, and stretching available facilities outside their limits.
The sight of dying elderly men and women who fell by the wayside on the tortuous journey from Baga, Doron Baga and Guzanmali towns is not only pathetic, but humanly degrading.
Likewise the pitiful sight of the youthful population of Baga’s able-bodied boys and girls, forced into street begging by circumstances forced upon them by the protracted Boko Haram conflict.
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Beyond food handouts, the IDPs are in desperate need for warm blankets, to protect against the biting harmattan cold. They are in need of shelter, mattresses, cooking utensils, water and sanitation items, pads, and other non-food items to avert a looming catastrophe.
As the highest Federal public Officer under whose supervisory whatch the National Emergency Magt. Authority (NEMA) and Presidential Comm. on Northeast Initiatives (PCNI) function, the Vice-President is in the best position to go, see and assess the deplorable condition of our vulnerable citizens for appropriate action. The situation recommends him even more, owing to his pro-humanitarian pasture and sympathies toward IDPs in the Northeast.
His visit will further help to check the racketeering practices of aid workers who have turned disaster-profiteers through diversion and theft of humanitarian aid in the recent past.
The time also calls for volunteers and care givers to lend helping hands in the evacuation and settlement processes of the newly displaced persons arising
from the flare-up in the Northeast conflict.
Signed:
Muhd. Sani Zorro,
Chair, Comm. on IDPs, Refugees, Migrants & Northeast Initiatives,
House of Representatives
NASS.
