By Adoyi M. Aba
Abuja
Director-General National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Muhammad Sani-Sidi, has given the assurance that the federal government had made available adequate food items and other relief materials to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-east to last them for a long period of time.
Addressing a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja on the humanitarian situation in the North-east, he stressed the unwavering commitment of the government to support the displaced persons, according to a statement by the agency’s Press Officer, Manzo Ezekiel.
He said the meeting was called to harmonise all humanitarian activities in the areas affected by the security challenge to ensure compliance with international standards and the Nigerian national development plans.
Sani-Sidi said in addition to the response so far, a high-power federal government delegation would soon visit the various camps to critically assess conditions of the displaced persons and provide further supports to them.
He said the displaced persons were presently living in various camps with about 760 unaccompanied children, adding that NEMA staffers deployed to support the displaced persons, were working together with officials of the various state governments in the management of the IDPs camps.
He disclosed that some of the displaced persons that fled into the neighbouring Republic of Cameroon have been evacuated to a camp in Yola.
He said Gombe was the reception point for more of the Nigerians to be evacuated from abroad, from where arrangements would be made to transport them to their own various home states.
Thos who attended the meeting were the Country Representative of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Ms Angele Dikongue-Atangana, representatives of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), UN-OCHA, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and the Nigerian Red Cross, among others.