UN raises concern over Nigeria’s 3.3m internally displaced persons

The United Nations (UN) has called on the Federal Government and the international community for a swift and stronger response to the plight of some 3.3 million people displaced in Nigeria due to violence and insurgent attacks in some parts of the country since 2010, one of the highest numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world.

The intergovernmental organisation said that the international support to protect and assist those displaced has remained woefully insufficient and has not kept par with the speedy increase of IDPs in Nigeria.

In a statement obtained by BusinessDay, Chaloka Beyani, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, was quoted as saying that “large scale internal displacement remains a national challenge in Nigeria,” adding that prevention of further displacement caused by indiscriminate killings, burning of villages and grenade attacks in crowded markets has to be a priority.

According to the statement, UN human right experts urge all concerned parties to hostilities to spare civilians and civilian areas, stressing that most of the displaced are women, many of them widows, and children.

“They have been the victims of violations, they have been traumatised, they have lost any means to provide for demorthemselves, let alone their families, and they need urgent assistance,” Beyani said.

Rita Izsak, UN special rapporteur on minority issues, who visited Nigeria in February 2014, explained that many of those displaced are persons belonging to ethnic and religious minorities who have been victims of violence.

“Urgent steps should be taken to address not only the symptoms but the root causes of the mass displacement that is affecting some regions,” Izsak said, pointing out that the major causes frequently lie beyond ethnic or faith factors, such as competition for land and resources and solutions require good governance in addition to effective security responses.

In addition to life saving  activities, the special rapporteur on IDPs drew special attention to the urgent need to restore livelihoods, services and governance capacity needs in order to allow IDPs to find durable solutions in the near future.

“The Nigerian authorities should make it a priority to adopt its draft national policy on IDPs, to serve as a framework to more efficiently respond to the needs of the internally displaced, including the support for durable solutions,” Beyani stressed.

“The assistance and protection of the displaced is first and foremost the responsibility of the government of Nigeria,” the special rapporteur noted, while commending recent efforts to assist over 200,000 IDPs.