Events are improving for 1.8m IDPs, camps in Borno
Tada Jutha, Maiduguri
The Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths has said that events are improving for 1.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Borno.
According to him, the humanitarian community is overwhelmed with people in need to restore their destroyed means of livelihood.
Griffiths raised the alarm, yesterday (Wednesday) in Maiduguri while receiving a 12-member UN delegation on the state of IDPs in camps and host communities in the state.
“I have the opportunity today in Bama to talk to many people and the IDPs in camps,” he said, as well as the military base there.
Besides, he added that the people confirmed to him the strategic importance not just for today and the future, but for UN support of policies.
“Our partnership for support is something which we do out of duty and responsibility within this case; we do it out of the commitment with the knowledge that events are improving each year for the people.
“I saw this today in Bama,” he declared, noting that this does not happen by chance.
He said the support of policies and efforts of the state government will restore peace and prosperity in Borno.
Continued; “This happens by authority, commitment, and wisdom and resources to overcome the challenges of humanitarian assistance.
“These are privileges to be part of that process,” insisting that the UN agencies should continue to earn each year as they go forward.”
Lamenting the incessant attacks, Griffiths said: “These are people we’ve seen in Bama.
“You know them; they are directly whose lives have been disrupted and in some cases destroyed by the armed non-state actors in the state.
“These people are innocent victims of the wickedness and depravity of those armed groups.
“Returning this society to a place, where families can depend on letting their children go schools and ensure their livelihoods,” including those new to those places.
He said that peace is as much a part of community life as is development.
“This is a vision for the future which the governor of the state leads effectively,” he said.
He added that the role of the UN was to provide aid assistance and support to the people through its agencies.
According to him, the partnership of others, include political leadership, development assistance, economic prosperity and good governance for the future of Nigeria.
Responding, Zulum said: “We want to address three main root causes of the insurgency,” adding that they include infrastructural deficits, climate vulnerability and increasing poverty among the people.
He also noted that durable and sustained solutions are neither cheap nor easy to make for the IDP returnees in liberated communities.
