BY JONAH NWOKPOKU

The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has said that more than three million persons are faced with humanitarian challenges arising from the problem of insurgency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States.

According to the agency, the insurgency has resulted in many deaths and displaced about 250, 000 that are now in various camps or living with relations and other places presumed to be safe.

NEMA’s Director General, Alhaji Muhammad Sani Sidi, disclosed this in Abuja at the 7th National Humanitarian Coordination Forum.

Sidi said the statistics are for the period between January and March 2014.

According to him, Borno State has the highest figure of 1, 304, 393 persons followed by Adamawa with 1, 086, 126  and Yobe 771, 368 that were affected, most of whom are women, children and the aged.

Represented by the Director of Administration, Dr Zanna Muhammadat the forum, Sidi said, though NEMA has been intervening with the provision of relief materials to the affected persons, “the needs of the affected population are increasing by the day and the support of all is urgently required.”

To effectively address the needs, he said all humanitarian organisations with the intention of supporting the plights of the affected persons should liaise with NEMA as the coordinating Agency to properly identify the gaps and avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts.

“To have the support of all in this regards, it is important for local and international humanitarian actors to know the scale of the problem at hand, the efforts being made by the relevant authorities and the existing gap for further support, “ he added.

It could be recalled that early this month, the United Nations released a report that revealed that about 57,000 Nigerians lived as refugees in neighbouring countries including Cameroun, Chad and Niger republic as a result of insurgency by Boko Haram.

The world body also disclosed that about half a million people have been internally displaced in the country, describing it as a very alarming situation.

Spokesperson of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, Mr. Adrian Edwards, who spoke with reporters in Geneva had said that of the 57,000 people who fled Nigeria, 17,000 are registered as Nigerians while the rest are nationals from neighbouring countries who have been living in Nigeria for ages.

He disclosed that Niger received the majority — some 40,000 concentrated in the Diffa region, a desert in the country’s eastern edge.

According to him, many of those fleeing North-Eastern Nigeria are traumatized and left with very few possessions, adding that besides the Lake Chad area, some of the new arrivals are from the Borno State capital, Maiduguri.

He said: “Since Nigeria declared a state of emergency in the three states in May 2013, more than 57,000 people have fled to Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Some 17,000 of these are registered Nigerian refugees. The rest are nationals of the surrounding countries who had been living in Nigeria for decades.”