The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), on Monday, donated relief materials for distribution to 20, 000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno.
The Director-General of the Agency, Dakuku Peterside, made the disclosure at the presentation of the items in Maiduguri. Peterside, who was represented by Victor Onuzuruike, Director Internal Audi in the Agency, said the gesture was part of the Agency’s Cooperate Social Responsibility to assist victims of natural disasters in the country.
He said the relief materials included assorted food and non-food items as well as empowerment kits to be distributed to persons displaced by the insurgency to alleviate their sufferings. The items include rice; beans, sorghum, detergents, milk, noodles, sewing, and grinding machines, among others.
“We are here as part of our cooperate responsibility, it has to do with the distribution of relief items to IDPs in the Lake Chad region which Borno state is also a beneficiary.
“We have interventions to touch many lives not just in the localities where we exist but other areas where we have human and natural disasters, and that is why we are here, we are here in 2018 and I believe we will still come back,” he said.
According to him, economic empowerment items are distributed to provide livelihood support to enable the displaced persons in camps to engage in productive activities and become self-reliant. Paterside noted that the gesture was to compliment
Federal Government efforts to alleviate the sufferings of persons affected by floods and other disasters. Also speaking, Yabawa Kolo, Chairperson, Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), lauded the gesture, adding that it would go a long way to augment government efforts at addressing humanitarian crisis caused by the insurgency
Kolo revealed that over 1.8 million persons were displaced by the insurgency, adding that 1.6 million of them were currently taking refuge in various IDPs camps in the state.
She said that the state government had recently distributed 120, 000 food items to IDPs who were taking refuge in Diffa, Niger Republic.
Kolo added that 12, 000 IDPs were in Chad and 85, 000 others in the Republic of Cameroon while thousands of displaced persons were trapped due to flood in Kala Balge Local Government Area of the state.
She urged philanthropist and development organizations to support the IDPs in the region, saying that: “Government alone cannot handle the situation”. (NAN)
