78,000 IDPs Resides In Bauchi-UN

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Masoyi Lusa

No fewer than 78,000 Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, are residing in host communities in bauchi state, the Head of Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr Ceasar Mbav Tshilombo has said.

Mr Tshilombo stated this yesterday during a protection mainstreaming training workshop for stakeholders in the north-east at the destination hotel in bauchi state.

He said the essence of the workshop was to support field-based capacity building of humanitarian actors in all sectors and to focus attention on protecting the rights of IDPs rather than providing only  material needs for them.

The State Head of office of UNHCR said that 1,200 of the IDPs in the state were residing in Boto Camp in Tafawa Balewa local government area of the state, adding that the agency was strategizing in the year 2016  on how to reach out to other IDPs living in  host communities in order to avoid negative coping mechanism of the IDPs such as sexual abuse, early child marriage  and other social vices.

“The Kampala convention is a law that ensures not only the protection of IDPs in an advent of crisis situation, insurgency,  flood disaster, but for government to create an environment that prevent displacement of persons”

” UNHCR and the National assembly are working towards the translation of the Kampala convention into the national law. The benefits of this law when domesticated is that the rights of IDPs in the nation will be legally recognized by the government and the challenges they encounter in displacement crisis will be given prompt attention” He said

Also, the UNHCR Senior Protection Officer, Allehone Abebe, Abuja office said that protection for IDPs has different dimensions which include providing   psychosocial support for victims sexual abuse, remedial action which involves giving compensation and access to justice for IDPs providing an environment friendly environment for them .

Allehone said that although Nigeria has ratified the legislation for the law for IDPs, it is yet to domesticate the law, pointing out that it will address the challenges faced by IDPS and ensure that government agencies contribute their quota in protecting their rights.

 

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