The United Nations says it has put measures in place to provide food assistance to about 3.9 million displaced persons in the North-East and Lake Chad Basin. Mr Edward Kallon, the Country Coordinator, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), disclose this in an interaction with people at the Bakassi Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Maiduguri.
The UN interactive session with displaced persons is part of activities to commemorate the 2017 World Humanitarian Day, tagged #NotATarget. This follows the continued onslaught on civilians in the northeast Nigeria which is worrisome not only to the Federal Government but also to the international community as well.
“We are calling on all stakeholders in this conflict to ensure that civilians are not caught in the crisis. We call on them to put people first in trying to find a solution to this crisis and I’m also trying to convey that the only durable solution to this crisis is for people to go back to their homes and start rebuilding their lives."
Kallon said that the UN, in collaboration with Nigerian Government and donor agencies, would provide food assistance to households displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency.
He believes that with the right political will the Boko Haram was is a workover for the Nigerian Government. “This crisis is big; there are about 5.2 million people that need food assistance every day.
“The humanitarian community working with the government are providing food assistance to close to 2.4 million people right now.
“We are also very happy that the government of Nigeria has also increased its assistance and thereby reaching another 1.5 million people. “The international community, the government of Borno, the Federal Government of Nigeria and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) et cetera.
“We are working round the clock and we will be reaching at least 3.9 million people with food assistance,” he said.
Kallo disclosed that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FOA) had also distributed fertilizers, seeds, and inputs to 140, 000 households in the liberated communities to enable them to return to their farms.
According to him, other agencies such as UNHCR and UNICEF were also providing shelter to the affected persons to enable them return home and re-build their lives.
