Move Intervention to Liberated Towns, NEMA Tells Humanitarian Agencies

Michael Olugbode
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has called on stakeholders in emergency management in the North East to move beyond intervention at internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps by extending their services to host communities and newly liberated towns.

Out of the 2,093,036 internally displaced persons in Borno State alone, about 500,000 are resident in camps both within Maiduguri and newly liberated towns.

But the 52 stakeholders mostly international agencies in humanitarian management presently involved in the humanitarian crisis in the North East have been alleged to be concentrated more at the IDPs camps at the detriment of displaced persons given abode in host communities and newly liberated communities.

Speaking during the Humanitarian Coordination Meeting organised by the NEMA in conjunction with Borno State Emergency Management Agency (BOSEMA) recently, Zonal Coordinator of the federal government’s emergency management agency, Alhaji Mohammed Kanar appealed to the stakeholders in humanitarian management in the area to extend their services to host communities and newly liberated towns.

He said as it stands at present the camps are already well covered but that records have shown that humanitarian crises continued to surface from communities hosting displaced persons and newly liberated towns.

Kanar said the reason for the coordination meeting was to assess the development in humanitarian crisis management in the affected areas, insisting that recent statistics has shown that the camps have little or no more humanitarian crisis.

He added that information has however shown that there are still pocket of humanitarian crisis in host communities and newly liberated towns and as such the agency is “appealing to our humanitarian partners to look more in this direction.”
Kanar, who admitted that some of the humanitarian partners have started making inroad into the host communities and newly liberated communities, said much needed to be done to arrest the humanitarian crisis in the North East.

He said the meeting would deliberate on how to scale up efforts at arresting humanitarian crisis in the host communities and the newly liberated towns.
The NEMA boss said the agency will boost humanitarian activities in eight council areas of Borno State that were affected in the ongoing Boko Haram crisis.

He revealed that the eight councils which will witness massive humanitarian assistance before the end of October include Gwoza, Gamboru-Ngala, Mafa, Bama, Askira-Uba, Konduga, Maiduguri Metropolitan Council and Jere.
At the meeting include all humanitarian agencies involved in alleviating the suffering of residents of Borno State due to the Boko Haram insurgency.

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