Humanitarian Day: Saraki sends team to IDP camps in Borno
(Nigeria) As part of the activities to mark the 2016 World
Humanitarian Day, the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, sent a technical
team to Maiduguri, Borno State, to conduct interviews with domestic and
international stakeholders working in the Internally Displaced Persons, IDP camps in the greater Maiduguri
area.
The purpose of the visit was to collect information about the emergency
relief, recovery and rehabilitation efforts in Borno State.
Saraki's team was directed to review the coordination
between the government of Nigeria and NGO/INGOS, the capacity of service
delivery programs and receive feedback from the IDP's themselves.
At the camps, the team interacted with groups of committed
officials and volunteers of NEMA and SEMA, who stated that the government was
doing all that it possibly could to aid and secure the IDPs. However, the complexity and scale of the
emergency is far beyond the government's capacity and that Nigeria simply
cannot do it by themselves.
Speaking on the purpose of the visit, the Senate President
stated that it was important to send a team to assess the humanitarian
situation on ground in the North East, following reports from aid agencies that
greater international attention and a more robust response is needed to
alleviate the plight of the over nine million Nigerians who are in need of relief
in the Lake Chad Basin area.
“We cannot afford to take for granted the sacrifice and
support of both our domestic and international partners in the North East,”
Saraki stated, “This is why we must all sit down as quickly as possible to plan
the transition from crisis, to relief and beyond. We must expedite the processes that are
needed to bring about the recovery and rehabilitation of the entire region.”
The Senate President’s delegation also represented Saraki at
the North East Humanitarian Summit, hosted by UN OCHA and the Network of Civil
Society Organisations, Borno State, NECSOB, where 150 IDP Ambassadors - 25
people chosen from six different camps - were inaugurated as representatives of
the IDPs in Borno State.
The responsibility of the IDP Ambassadors is to relay
the concerns about protection, community input and empowerment of IDPs directly
to government and international partners.
Several IDPs who spoke at the North East Humanitarian Summit
raised awareness about nutrition and food aid delivery issues.
In a related development, the Senate President has called
for an International Summit on the North East - similar to the one held in
London for Syria which raised about $10 million.
He also mentioned that at the
resumption of the Senate in September, there would be a motion to create a
Senate Ad-Hoc Committee to conduct a Public Hearing on the humanitarian
response in the North East.
The public hearing will be aimed at reviewing the
recommendations of domestic and international partners in order to develop a
sustainable framework for Nigeria’s emergency and humanitarian crisis
management for the North East and future complex emergencies.
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