NEMA releases food items to 1.6m Borno IDPs

The North-East zonal office of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) yesterday released 200 metric tons (80,000 bags) of rice, maize, beans and sugar for distribution to 1.6 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in resettlement camps and host communities in Borno State.

The emergency release of relief food items, according to NEMA was to reduce the crisis of malnourished children and other related humanitarian challenges in the camps.

Presenting the items to the State Emergency Management Agency(SEMA) in Maiduguri, the Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Mohammed Kanar disclosed that 2,100 cartons of seasoning cooking cubes and 2,400 cans of vegetable oil would be distributed to displaced persons in October and November this year.

Kanar, however, noted that the decision to hand over these food items to the Chairman of SEMA, Ahmed Satomi, was based on the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NEMA and SEMA to complement efforts of the state government and other humanitarian agencies on feeding IDPs in camps and host communities in the state.

His words: “We in NEMA are glad to hand over yet another relief items for onward delivery to IDPs in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) and Jere council area. These items are for the months of October to November 2016.

“This is with exception of other IDPs who were residing in 13 resettlement camps across some council areas of the state, which NEMA also caters for.“As you are all aware that based on the MoU, NEMA is to give food items monthly to feed about 1.6 million IDPs in the state, while the state government takes charge of condiments, but this time around, NEMA felt it necessary to also give out the condiments, and that was why, apart from the assorted bags of food items, we are giving additional 2,100 cartons of seasoning cubes and 2,400 jerry cans of vegetable oil.”

The chairman of SEMA who received the relief items commended the Federal Government and other agencies for complementing the state government’s efforts at tackling the humanitarian challenges of feeding the displaced persons.