Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
The North East Development Commission (NEDC) said it was touring camps for people displaced by Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State to assess the humanitarian situation and verify data at its disposal.
Managing Director of the commission, Dr Mohammed Alkali who disclosed this to journalists at the Customs House Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp at the outskirt of Maiduguri, on Friday said the commission’s tour of IDPs camp would help in understanding the data available to it and the reality on ground.
“It is not as if we don’t have any data about the humanitarian situation and the IDPs camps in the North East but we need to also go out to verify the data available to us. So we’ve come to assess the camps, to know what is happening,” he said.
Alkali was reacting to a question from our correspondent on why the commission needed to visit IDPs camps despite several available data on the humanitarian situation in the North East and how it could assess the situation in very hours of the tour.
He said the commission was aware that many development partners and humanitarian organisations had done a lot of researches and engagement but said the commission could not act until it verified such information collated.
He explained that the mandate of the commission was principally to reconstruct public infrastructure destroyed in the decade of Boko Haram violence, rehabilitate and resettle victims of the conflict.
“That is why we are here to know what the issues are so as to provide the required response,” he said.
Meanwhile, the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) said it would collaborate with the North East Development Commission to address the humanitarian and development challenges created by insurgency. It, however, said it planned to equally engage in the management of other emergencies.
“The creation of the commission is like a booster to us because we now have resources to pull together. SEMA will also be addressing other emergencies like flooding which the insurgency has taken over in the past,” Executive Chairman of the agency, Hajiya Yabawa Kolo disclosed.
She said education of children especially those displaced by the violence was a priority of her agency, adding that any intervention given would not make impact if education was not given attention.
She said the agency’s humanitarian department would be working with NEDC for the safe return of the IDPs. About 3 million people have been displaced in the three northeast states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe affected by Boko Haram since 2009, according to a 2018 displacement tracking matrix of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).