Saraki Moves To Review North-East Humanitarian Situation

As part of the activities to mark the 2016 World Humanitarian Day, the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has sent a technical team to Maiduguri, Borno State, to conduct interviews with domestic and international stakeholders working in the IDP camps in the Maiduguri area. The purpose of the visit is to collate information about the emergency relief, recovery and rehabilitation efforts in Borno State.Sarakis team, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Yusuf Olaniyonu was directed to review the coordination between the government of Nigeria and NGO/INGOS, the capacity of service delivery programmes and receive feedback from the IDPs themselves.At the camps, the team interacted with groups of committed officials and volunteers of NEMA and SEMA, who stated that the government was doing all that it possibly could to aid and secure the IDPs.However, the complexity and scale of the emergency is far beyond the governments capacity and that Nigeria as a nation simply cannot do it by themselves.Speaking on the purpose of the visit, the Senate President stated that it was important to send a team to assess the humanitarian situation on ground in the North East, following reports from aid agencies that greater international attention and a more robust response is needed to alleviate the plight of the over 9 million Nigerians who are in need of relief in the Lake Chad Basin area.We cannot afford to take for granted the sacrifice and support of both our domestic and international partners in the North East, Saraki stated, This is why we must all sit down as quickly as possible to plan the transition from crisis, to relief and beyond. We must expedite the processes that are needed to bring about the recovery and rehabilitation of the entire region he saidThe Senate Presidents delegation also represented Saraki at the North East Humanitarian Summit, hosted by UN OCHA and the Network of Civil Society Organisations, Borno State (NECSOB), where 150 IDP Ambassadors25 people chosen from 6 different campswere inaugurated as representatives of the IDPs in Borno State. The responsibility of the IDP Ambassadors is to relay the concerns about protection, community input and empowerment of IDPs directly to government and international partners.
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