by Usman Alabi
The European Union and the German Federal Ministry for economic cooperation donated 54.5 million Euros to support and tackle the humanitarian challenges of 2.2 million internally displaced persons and other host communities in Borno and Adamawa states.
This was made known yesterday by the Minister, Deputy Head of Delegation of European Union to Nigeria and Ecowas, Mr. Richard Young and Minister Counsellor, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mrs. Regine Hess at a summit which took place at the Government House, Maiduguri, Borno State.
According to Mr. Young, out of 2.2 million IDPs, Borno and Adamawa states record the highest percentages of displaced persons in Nigeria with about 68% and 81% respectively, stressing that this enormous figure of forced displacement make Nigeria, the third country in the world with largest number of IDPs after Syria and Colombia.
“The scale up of the five-year programme beginning from August 2016 to July 2021 will contribute to the stabilization of North-East Nigeria through strengthening the resilience of local population affected by insurgency, including IDPs, host communities, and returnees.
Young added that the programme is aimed at strengthening basic service delivery in the area of education, health, social infrastructure to IDPs and host communities.
Mrs. Hess in her brief remarks said Borno and Adamawa states were selected on the North-East Nigeria Recovery and Peace Building Assessment, RPBA, by the Nigerian Government, the EU, World Bank and UN2, which was recently concluded and to which this proposed action is fully aligned. She pointed out that based on the RPBA assessment, the IDP population of Borno State is estimated at 1,427,999 people, followed by Adamawa with 150,718 as of April 2016.