By Okey Ndiribe
 
The United Nations is considering  the possibility of setting up a committee to monitor the plight of displaced persons in Nigera.

This was disclosed, yesterday, in Abuja by the United Nations Under-Secretary, Baroness Valerie Amos, while addressing newsmen during a courtesy visit she paid to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Martin Uhomoibhi.

She said that the global body was working with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, to ascertain the number of displaced persons in Nassarawa, Plateau and Cross Rivers States.

According to her, there was need to examine the situation of displaced persons in the affected states very carefully before intervening, adding that it was important that the human rights of displaced persons were also respected.

 She noted that the UN was also working with the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, and other relevant government agencies  to respond appropriately to the plight of displaced persons in the country.
 
She said that among the challenges faced by the UN presently were those of  persons who were displaced by the cyclical drought in the Sahelian region of Africa, adding that the UN was still grappling with the high number of displaced persons in Cote’ D’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and  Guinea Bissau.