16,470 Nigerians in displaced persons camps - NEMA

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Sunday that 16,470 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were officially registered and living in various camps across several Nigerian states.


The figure is contained in a statement signed by the Senior Information Officer of the Agency, Sani Datti, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.

The statement quoted the Director-General of NEMA, Muhammad Sidi, as saying at the 6th Dialogue of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, that the displacement in Nigeria was rather volatile.

The Geneva dialogue was on the Protection of Displaced Persons.

Mr. Sidi explained that 2.3 million persons were displaced and took refuge in the camps opened by governments across several states in the country, at the peak of the 2012 flood disaster.

He attributed the causes of the displacement to both natural and human-induced factors. He noted that recurring floods and drought were the major natural hazards.

“Land use conflicts between pastorals and sedentary farmers, ethno-religious crises and emerging terrorism constitute the main sources of human-induced displacement,” he said.

According to him, the Nigerian Government had developed a mechanism for disaster risk reduction, coordinated by NEMA, for preventing and mitigating forced displacement.

He said that the agency, in collaboration with the UNHCR in 2013, organised training on humanitarian/IDP protection for NGOs chief security officers of government agencies.

This, he said, was in the agency’s effort to improve the management of the IDPs in the camps, adding that 45 persons were trained under the train the trainers programme.

Mr. Sidi sought more support from the UNHCR to strengthen the existing mechanism and instrument for a more coordinated IDP management in Nigeria.

(NAN)