The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Fatma Samoura, has called on the Nigerian government to provide an enhanced security around the Internally Displaced Persons’ Camps in the North East where Boko Haram insurgents are still operating.
Samoura said that there are people in these camps who have still not been reached due to the insurgency and therefore called for the presence of more security personnel to enable access to those people.
“There is the need to enhance the security of the humanitarian actors based in Maiduguri through more regular flights in and out of Maiduguri. There is also the need to secure the roads leading to the different capitals of the States in the North East region.”
The UN chief who spoke to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said that everything is being done to ensure that the Internally Displace Persons resumed their normal lives.
Samoura, who is also the UN Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Representative of UN Development Programme, asked the victims of Boko Haram insurgency not to give up on their current condition.
“For the IDPs, I just want to encourage them that their sufferings will be a thing of the past very soon.
“I also want to assure them that conducive conditions for their safe return will be put in place so that they can resume their normal lives.”
Samoura said that apart from directing the immediate relocation of the UN Humanitarian Coordination Centre to Borno State, she had taken steps to improve access to IDPs through dialogue with humanitarian actors. [myad]
