Jutha Gupah, Maiduguri
The decade long Boko Haram insurgency, has gulped $1.34 billion (N482.4 billion) on Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs’) health and livelihoods in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. About $2.3 billion (N828 billion), has already been expended by Nigerian governments and international community on IDPs between January, 2014 and December, 2018. This was disclosed in 2019 Report of Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC); released Friday in Maiduguri to The Guardian. “The highest financial burdens come from the impacts of internal displacement on health, housing and livelihoods of displaced persons,” said the report. It explained that the costs and losses associated with security and education are generally secondary to these, but are still significant.
According to the Report, these figures assesses the cost and losses associated with internal displacement’s most direct consequences on health, shelter, education, security and livelihoods. It noted that; “The costs neither account for long term consequences of internal displacement nor costs and losses incurred by host communities or other affected groups. “They should therefore be considered as underestimates of the actual economic impact of internal displacements.” The report also highlighted options of evaluating the economic impacts associated with internal displacement’s harm to health, education, housing, security and work.
On displacement impacts’ implications, the report said: “They compare the financial risk posed by internal displacement on national economies with affected government’s ability to cope with it. “These different measures all point to the repercussion of not accounting for all IDPs in development and humanitarian plans.” According to the report, it leads to likely regress on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other global commitments.
