The Federal Government has delivered 7,820 tons of food items to Borno households affected in the over a decade long insurgency. The 11-year Boko Haram insurgency has claimed 32,000 lives and property worth $9.2 billion (N3.5 trillion) in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. The delivered food items are, being distributed to 26,067 households with a population of 156,402 victims. Presenting the food items Sunday in Maiduguri, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, disclosed that; “I commended the Borno state government in providing food and non-food items to its vulnerable population affected by insurgency. “Your willingness Excellency; to work with and support Humanitarian stakeholders providing humanitarian interventions could cushion the devastating effects of terrorism. “Due to the recent restriction of movement to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic and inaccessibility of communities due to floods and insecurity; vulnerable persons, particularly IDPs, may require further support.” According to her, the humanitarian support comprises; basic necessities including food from the federal government. She said the delivered food items, include 78,201 bags or rice, beans, maize and millet. While other food items delivered yesterday to the Deputy Governor, Umar Kadafur, include 6,518 cartons of tomato paste and seasoning cubes, 1,304 bags of iodized salt and 2,607; 20-litre kegs of cooking oil. “At a meeting held with Vice President on September 4, 2020, it was discussed that accessibility issues faced by INGOs operating in the Northeast due to insecurity, floods or difficult terrains, could be mitigated with support of security services,” she noted. She added that it was outlined in the joint CiSEC communique signed at the end of third day Civil-Security Cooperation Workshop held in Maiduguri from 6th to 8th November, 2019. According to her, the communique highlights the need for Civil-Security Cooperation to ensure conduct of seamless humanitarian activities in the Northeast. On protection of victims and aid workers, she said: “Your Excellency, the CiSEC structures provide the relevant platform for the essential dialogue and interaction required between Humanitarian/civilian and security actors,” adding that it is necessary to pursue the common goals. She said the humanitarian goals, are to protect and support persons of concern affected by emergencies created by wars, armed conflicts, and terrorism. She said other humanitarian emergencies in the country, include natural and secondary catastrophes; and technological and environmental disasters. Sadiya therefore, request the state government provide necessary information required to enable collaboration with Nigerian Air Force (NAF) to drop food and non-food items in locations that have been made inaccessible due to “insecurity or recent floods. “You’re Excellency, the Managing Director of North East Development Commission and the Director General of National Emergency Management Agency, will work with your team to ascertain and provide the NHCC with the required information,” she said, noting this was ensure that the interventions being provided are prioritized to meet the needs of identified vulnerable communities. She explained that in addressing vulnerability of affected communities requires that a ‘humanitarian-development peace nexus’ approach is being adopted within all structures, systems, processes, and policy environment. According to her, humanitarian action, social inclusion and protection policies and programmes, as well as, peace building structures, must not be implemented as silo or serial processes. Instead, she said they are all required to occur in a concurrent and cohesive manner, to ensure economic and social stability. She pledged that NHCC and Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs will work closely with the Borno state government and other humanitarian stakeholders to alleviate and limit vulnerability of affected population in Borno and the country at large. While lamenting on insurgency, Kadafur said: “Borno has suffered a lot because of this insurgency. We’ve lost about 30% of our housing stock to the over a decade Boko Haram insurgency. “We also lost over 5,744 classrooms in the tertiary institutions, secondary and primary schools across the state.” He said that over 664 municipal buildings had also been torched, but they have been rebuild and still building some of destroyed public structures. “We’ve lost over 220 community health centres during the over a decade long terrorism,” he lamented. Meanwhile, he said that the stage government is determined to make it overcome the challenges it had been facing during the 11-year terrorism in the state. He assured the minister that government is to partner with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and other INGOs in the humanitarian crisis. According to him, the state government will provided an enabling environment for humanitarian partners reach the vulnerable people with life-saving assistance. On returning the IDPs, he said: “The state government is not forcing the IDPs to return to their communities. “They are desirous to go back to their communities, so as to have a sense of belonging with restored means of livelihoods,” adding that; there are 1.2 million IDPs currently living in host communities of Maiduguri and Jere, where houses are being built by federal and state government for their return
