Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Bernard Doro, has said that insecurity is forcing thousands of Nigerians to remain in IDP camps, making safe resettlement impossible without lasting peace.
Minister Doro said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday.
“There are factors that lead to displacement, and crisis is a major one in our country. The fact that the crisis has not abated completely is one reason why displacement has continued”, he stated.
The Minister added: “Camps are meant for temporary accommodation while they’re being looked after. But unfortunately, to be able to resettle people back into their ancestral homes, you require peace to return.”
He further dismissed claims that there are no plans in place to resettle IDPs, noting that his ministry is working with the office of the National Security Advisor to ensure that the homes of IDPs are secured.
“On resumption of office, what we have done is to work alongside the Office of the National Security Advisor and other security bodies to ensure that the ancestral homes of individuals in the camps are secured. Unless you secure the homes, it will be a situation in futility if you resettle those individuals. Because to resettle people back into their ancestral homes, you require peace and you also require the necessary conditions to be available to ensure that this is achieved. So, it is not correct that there are no plans; plans are on the way. Like I stated earlier on, we are working alongside the security organizations to ensure that peace returned so that these IDPs are resettled”, he assured
He noted that some camps nationwide have been shut down, with residents resettled in their ancestral homes, reflecting the efforts of his ministry.
“Currently, we have about two camps in Borno that is down. So the people are being resettled. As you heard the Honorable Commissioner explaining earlier on, we work alongside various organizations, the international development partners and what have you, to be able to ensure that humanitarian assistance is provided to the people in our different camps and also that we’re able also to support them with livelihoods”, he said
Dismissing claims that IDPs across Nigeria are estimated to be over 7.5 million people, the honourable minister said:
“And just also to correct some sort of figures in your reporting earlier on, to the best of my knowledge and based on the information provided to us by the International Organization for Migration, (IOM), there’s an estimated 3.7 million people in camps across the country and host communities. Your figure quoted 7.5, I’m not sure the source of that data”, he explained.
Doro explained that despite existing challenges, the ministry is intensifying efforts, alongside development partners, to provide dignified shelter, adequate feeding, improved sanitation for IDPs across the nation.
“Of course there’s still more to do. I can’t sit here and tell you exactly that that the situation in camps is palatable for everyone. But within limited resources we’re providing, working with development partners, to provide resettlement homes. We are providing temporary accommodation that takes into consideration the dignity of the person. We’re looking at hygiene issues, sanitation issues. We’re looking at their feeding, and we’re looking at providing infrastructure where resettlement is needed. I won’t call the IDPs as ‘forgotten Joes’, I can’t use that word. They are people, and in everything we do, we do take into consideration their dignity”, the minister remarked.
Adding, Minister Doro said that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction works to ensure that the illiterate population in IDP camps are exposed to education.
“We work with our development partners to be able to provide support to people in IDP, and that includes educating the children that are in the IDP camps. Of course, people coming from different organizations, NGOs wanting to offer support, but not all of those supports are channeled through us. But for what we do is we ensure that qualified individuals are engaged to be able to support the education of children in IDP camps”, he said.
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