NEMA, SEMA, others meet to strengthen response services to IDPs in Northeast

an IDPs camp in North East Nigeria

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Wednesday organised a humanitarian stakeholders’ meeting in Maiduguri to appraise and strengthen humanitarian response services to persons displaced by Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast.

Inaugurating the meeting, NEMA’s Northeast Zonal Coordinator, Mr Saidu Minin, said the forum would enable the agency and other humanitarian actors to assess, identify gaps, map out strategies, and promote collaborative efforts to fast-track implementation of sound response services.

Minin disclosed that the meeting was designed to appraise humanitarian interventions for the first quarter of 2019, in view of the influx of newly displaced persons to Maiduguri, a development occasioned by resurgence of Boko Haram attacks.

“This meeting is to appraise humanitarian crisis in the Northeast with a view to identifying gaps and finding ways to address them,’’ he said.

Minin added that such forum was critical to the improvement of response services by humanitarian actors and development organisations in the region.

The coordinator commended the Federal and Borno State Governments over its support to the agency.

Also, Mrs Yabintu Ali, the representative of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), said it had constructed 1,300 shelters at various Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Maiduguri.

Ali explained that the projects were executed at the New Stadium and Gubio IDP camps in Maiduguri, adding that plans had reached advance stage for the construction of additional 200 shelters in the area.

Elaborating further, Ali said that the organisation was also providing food, water, agriculture, and livelihood support to displaced persons in the state.

On his part, Alhaji Musa Kubo, the state’s Commissioner for Education, said that the state government had initiated viable projects aimed at addressing the humanitarian crisis caused by insurgency.

While commending the humanitarian stakeholders for their support, the commissioner further urged them to furnish the government with information on their activities to facilitate effective coordination of response services.

The meeting was organised by NEMA in collaboration with Borno State Emergency Agency.

NEMA is saddled with the responsibility of disaster management in all ramifications.