Resources can no longer serve displaced persons in 20 Niger IDP camps ― NSEMA DG

The Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) has said that available government resources can no longer serve the displaced persons inside the 20 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the state.

The Director-General of NSEMA, Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Inga, stated this during an interview with newsmen at the weekend when a non-governmental organization (NGO), the Victims Support Fund (VSF) made an assessment tour of the Gwada IDP camps in Shiroro local government area of the state.

According to Inga, “the burden of taking care of the IDPs is taking a toll on Niger State government following the dwindling resources of the state government. Government resources can no longer sustain the displaced people for a long time.”

The NSEMA DG stated further that the Niger State government was having serious concern over the IDPs situation in the state, saying “this is why we are looking outward to public-spirited and well-meaning Nigerians including NGOs to come and help us because this situation is not easy and has overwhelmed us especially with the lean resources and economic hardship in the country.

“The state is not deriving its resources elsewhere as its resources come within the economy of the country. This is why we are calling for people to come so that we can partner and make the living conditions of these people better.”

The NSEMA boss further explained that the majority of the displaced persons were still in the camps because their communities were not yet safe for them to return.

“Most of them are from Kaure which is where the Boko Haram has hoisted its flag and we have not yet gotten security clearance that the place is safe for them to return. The government does not want to gamble with their lives by telling them to return when their homes are not safe,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of VSF, Professor Nana Tanko after taking an assessment tour around the Gwada IDPs camps said that the organization whose chairman is Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd) will come in to assist the IDPs in the area of education, food and non-food items as well as look at ways to provide means of livelihood for them.

“The area of interventions that we will look at would be education because a lot of the children are out of school, food, and a means of livelihood. Those are the areas we are going to look into and see how we can help.

“It is observed that the people are staying here with a lot of constraints because this is a camp that it is only the government that has been helping them. My shock is that with all the humanitarian agencies and development partners we have in Nigeria, none has supported this camp.

“I am calling on all other agencies that ought to be rendering support along with the government agencies to reach out to the displaced persons in Niger State,” she concluded.

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