BBOG: Chibok Girls are Now IDPs

BBOG: Chibok Girls are Now IDPs

As the BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) movement marked the second day of its Global Week of Action to commemorate #Day1000 of the abduction of the Chibok girls on April 14, 2014, the group has said wherever the girls are, they remained internally displaced persons (IDPs).

BBOG in a statement jointly signed by its leaders, Oby Ezekwesili and Aisha Yesufu, described the condition of IDPs in Nigeria as a humanitarian tragedy of immense proportion which had been confirmed by several agencies.

According to the statement made available to journalists yesterday in Abuja, "Today is the second day of our Global Week of Action to mark ‎#Day1000 of the abduction of Chibok girls in their school on April 14, 2014. Today is Day 1,001 of their abduction.

"Chibok girls are themselves IDPs wherever they may be. The condition of IDPs in the Nigeria is a humanitarian tragedy of immense proportion as confirmed by several agencies.”

The statement further read: "For instance, a United Nations expert on IDPs, Chaloka Beyani, after a four-day visit to Nigeria, described the situation resulting from the Boko Haram terror campaign and government’s counter-insurgency measures as “displaying all the hallmarks of the highest category crises.”

In further assessing the crisis, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the crisis, coming into its eighth year, “Shows no sign of abating and is adding to the long history of marginalisation and chronic under-development as well as a higher rate of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment.”

These have been further confirmed by members of the #BringBackOurGirls group, some of whom are family members of IDPs, working to alleviate their plights.‎

BBOG explained that the Nigerian government was not doing enough with the urgency required. "Our government is not responding with the required urgency. Shortly after our movement began on April 30, 2014, we took up the issue of IDPs and had our first symbolic visits to IDP camps around Abuja with modest humanitarian support within our means.

"We have continually highlighted their plight but unfortunately, little or nothing has of their welfare and well-being improved," the group stated.

It stated that the IDP population in Nigeria, those in formal camps, was officially estimated by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to be two million, "however, the vast majority of IDPs, accounting for up to 90 prcent of the entire IDPs population - are in informal settlements and host communities, most of which are not government-recognized, as a result, they are mainly catered to by the non-governmental organisations and international humanitarian agencies.

"Many are trapped in territories the government had declared free from the insurgents and habitable for normal life. Places like Gwoza, Bama, Dikwa, Monguno and others are only accessible via military escort. The others are completely cut off. For instance, in only two locations in Gwoza are accessible to multinational and domestic humanitarian workers, the rest are only accessible via military escort at most once a day, the others are completely cut off! IDPs are dying of hunger. There are hardly any records of the scores of IDPs in and around Abuja and all over the nation.”

‎

The group observed that the lot of those in government-controlled camps is not any different. Further to the above, there have been confirmed reports of sexual molestation of IDPs including by military and police personal. The authorities claimed that some have been apprehended for these acts and will be duly punished, but the matter has subsequently been swept under the carpet.

It added that: "The Presidential Committee on Northeast Initiatives (PCNI) is an institution of the presidency to, among others, cater for the need of IDPs, but has left much to be desired. For instance, the PCNI was recently unable to convincingly account for N2.5 billion spent.  

BBOG however lamented the abysmal poor job currently being done by the Borno Ministry of Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, and Resettlement (RRR) saying, "their focus in the so-called rehabilitation has been commercial properties of politically-connected persons as against looking out for the downtrodden and vulnerable to lift them up back to a normal life.