UNHCR builds capacity of 800 IDPs in skills

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in partnership with American University of Nigeria (AUN) has trained 800 returnees and displaced persons in vocational skills and capacity building improve their livelihoods in Northeast.

The UNHCR livelihood empowerment project is funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and implemented by AUN.

Addressing the graduands recently while distributing empowerment packages to 80 cooperatives in Maiduguri, representative of UNHCR, Cesar Tshilombo said that the training was to “upgrade skills and capacity” of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and returnees affected by Boko Haram insurgency.

The livelihoods intervention project, according to him, has targeted IDPs from Borno state, the epicenter of insurgency and three other states of Adamawa, Yobe and Gombe in the Northeast.

He said the training, which commenced from January to November has targeted a total of 11, 652 IDPs and returnees, with Borno and Yobe having the lion’s share of 5, 738 and 2, 061 respectively.

He said that the victims of violence, are supposed to be empowered, as they lost everything they had before they were sacked and displaced from their communities by Boko Haram.