Nigeria says over 1.9mln IDPs in camps in northeastern states

The Nigerian government on Sunday said a total of 1, 934, 765 internally displaced persons (IDP) are currently living in formal camps, host communities and satellite camps in six northeastern states.

Saad Bello, a Camp Coordinator with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) disclosed this to visiting United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Samanthan Power in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

He said there were 32 formal camps in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States accommodating a total of 189,783 IDPs.

The coordinator said there were 14 satellite camps in liberated communities, mainly in Borno State with 216, 184 IDPs.

He said the Nigerian government had been trying to meet the needs of the IDPs in the provision of food, nutrition, non-food items, medicament, psycho-social therapy, security and protection.

He said as the government continued in the efforts to meet the needs of the IDPs, more supports were critically required for the IDPs across the three identified kinds of camps before they return back to their communities.

Earlier, the U.S. Ambassador to UN , Samanthan Power, who led a high level delegation from US to the Malkohi IDPs camp and host communities said they were there to determine what more could be done to defeat Boko haram so that they can return back to their communities.

Source: XINHUA