Yobe partners IOM in IDPs re-settlement, rehabilitation project
By Njadvara Musa, Damaturu
In expediting the resettlement and rehabilitation of internally displaced persons (IDPs), the Yobe State government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) of the UN.
The state policy on displaced persons and refugees is to resettle and rehabilitate approximately 850,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) into the insurgency-affected communities of Gujba, Yusufari, Fika, Gulani and Geidam, a border area with Niger.
In a statement released, yesterday in Damaturu, The Director General, Press and Media Affairs, Mohammed Mamman revealed, ⁹”Governor Mai Mala Buni, has launched the IDPs State Policy to address the challenges of resettling and rehabilitating the IDP returnees to their ancestral homes, including the border areas with Niger.
Highlighting the IOM’s intervention resettlement project (IRP), Buni disclosed that his administration has already earmarked five per cent or N1.56 billion of this year’s budget to provide infrastructures and other facilities for the resettlement and rehabilitation of IDP returnees with dignity.
Besides resettling the displaced persons, Buni added that the state government has also invested in the critical sectors of education, health, agriculture, water and power supplies, and roads to quiken the resettlement process with IOM and other development partners.
Buni continued: “I am happy this has worked out for us, and we do not have IDP camps in the state,” noting that all the displaced persons have been resettled with dignity, and according to the Kampala UN convention.
The IOM Chief of Mission in Nigeria, Dimanche Sharon, commended the governor for his commitment to complying with the Kampala convention on IDPs and refugees.
“It takes a leader with a special heart to show such a great concern to the resettlement of displaced persons with dignity,” she said, reiterating that the UN agency is to partner with the Yobe state government in improving the living conditions of IDP returnees in liberated communities.
