By Olukayode Michael, Maiduguri
The United Nations has decried humanitarian services to victims of Northeast crisis, lamenting that it is not meeting international best standard.
The world body also criticized some of the interventions in the region, insisting that this has shown the dearth of knowledge from some of the key stakeholders in the provision of humanitarian services in the troubled Northeast region.
Speaking at the Humanitarian Stakeholders Forum organized by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Maiduguri on Thursday, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Edward Kallon said all the stakeholders to bridge gaps in the services they are proving to displaced persons in the Northeast region.
He said: “We need to have a better understanding of the gap in the services we are providing for the displaced persons in the camps, it seems we don’t have a better understanding of the gaps.
“We also need to provide services base on international best practices. We are not meeting the best standard, it requires we must work together to provide better services.”
Kallon lamented that: “One thing that is very clear whatever we have done and what we are doing currently is way below international standard.”
He asked the meeting to as a matter of urgency brainstorm on how to relocate 89,000 IDPs, he said more than 28 hectares of land is needed for this.
He said he was shocked to discover that 20,110 displaced persons are sleeping outside without shelters in Bama, Borno State.
Kallon said: “When I was in Bama I was shocked with what I saw. Damboa shows another ugly face with over 10,000 without shelter.”
He said: “Camps are over congested, we are under so much pressure to improve on what we are doing, we should not be too proud that we have done extremely well, there is still a lot that needs to be done. And I call on NEMA and SEMA that is the area we need to work with the international community to bridge the gap, I am seriously worried about the efficiency and effectiveness of what we are doing to address displacement in Northeast we should do better and we must do better.”
The National Emergency Manangement Agency also painted an ugly picture of handling of humanitarian services in the Northeast, lamenting that over 45,000 internally displaced persons are sleeping in the open in Borno State.
The Director General of NEMA, Alhaji Mustapha Maihajja who was represented by Director of Planning and Strategy, Mr. Kayode Fagbemi lamented that the recent challenges faced was as a result of massive arrival of IDPs from some attacked areas in Borno.
He said the Northeast Zonal Coordinator just told us that about 45,000 are without shelter, and this was because of new arrivals, we are here to plan on how to address this challenges as well as to provides non food and food items that will bring succour to the people.
He explained that the purpose of conveying the meeting was not to tell us what they had done but to tell us the challenges and gap so that we can profer solution to the challenges.
He said: “We know that the humanitarian situation is getting worse in some areas and there are more critical needs in some areas, there is no co-ordination meeting this gap will not be identified.”