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IDP Camp Attack: UN Asks FG To Protect Innocent Citizens

  The United Nations has called on the Nigerian Government to step up efforts towards protecting innocent people from acts of violence in the country. … Continue reading IDP Camp Attack: UN Asks FG To Protect Innocent Citizens


IDP Camp Attack: UN Asks FG To Protect Innocent Citizens
One of the villages which came under attack by Boko Haram terrorists in Borno State on October 31, 2018.
IDP Camp Attack: UN Asks FG To Protect Innocent Citizens
One of the villages which came under attack by Boko Haram terrorists in Borno State on October 31, 2018.

 

The United Nations has called on the Nigerian Government to step up efforts towards protecting innocent people from acts of violence in the country.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr Edward Kallon, made the call in a statement following Wednesday’s Boko Haram attack on an Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp and four villages in Borno State.

“I urge the Government of Nigeria to step up the protection of innocent people,” said Mr Kallon in the statement on Thursday in Abuja.

He condemned the terrorist attack on the settlements, especially on the IDP camp which hosts 12,600 civilians seeking refuge there after they were forced out of their homes by the violence in the North East.

The UN humanitarian coordinator noted that the insurgents killed at least eight people and injured dozens more, while women were kidnapped with houses looted and razed.

He added that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed that the violence left hundreds of persons displaced.

“Attacks on camps for internally displaced people threaten these innocent women, children and men who have already fled their homes as a result of the ongoing conflict,” Kallon decried.

“Our deepest condolences go to the families of the victims of this attack and we wish the injured a speedy recovery.”

The UN official explained that the attack took place in one of the nine IDP camps in Dalori and the camps which were set up since 2015 were home to 47,500 civilians.

More than 20 aid organisations are providing aid including food, safe water, sanitation, medicine and shelter to thousands of people.

Kallon said the terrorists attacked Dalori village in January 2016, killing no fewer than 100 people and burning most of the village down.

He described the humanitarian crisis in the North East, which has spilled over into the Lake Chad region, as one of the most severe in the world.

According to him, 7.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2018 in the worst-affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, and 6.1 million targeted for humanitarian assistance.

Since the start of the conflict in 2009, thousands of people have been killed in the three states, with thousands of women and girls abducted used as so-called “suicide” bombers.