Army bans commercial transportation, sale of fish in Borno

UNDP Accords Priority To Female Households In Northeast

The Nigerian Army has reiterated its ban on commercial transportation and sale of fish along the Maiduguri-Monguno-Baga axis in Borno State.The ban was contained in a statement by the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Onyeama Nwachukwu, issued to journalists yesterday in Maiduguri.

The statement reads warned that some people were taking advantage of the re-opening of the route to smuggle fish for Boko Haram insurgents and replenish their logistics to continue with insurgency and terrorism in the northeast.

Nwachukwu warned the public against the smuggling of fish products along the route, saying only fish movement for subsistence consumption was allowed on the route, warning that defaulters would be arrested and prosecuted.

The Theatre Command of Operation Lafiya Dole also reminded the public that the ban on commercial transportation of fish in the axis was still in force.
Meanwhile, the Regional Coordinator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Northeast, Joerg Kuehnel, said priority has been accorded female households to stabilise all Boko Haram affected communities in a sustainable way with other UN agencies in Nigeria.

Communities’ stabilisation, according to him, is being implemented in three phases to create an enabling environment for the return of 1.8 million displaced persons.

Kuehnel disclosed this yesterday in Maiduguri while briefing journalists on UN agency’s Integrated Community Stabilisation Package (ICSP) for the zone.
He said the agency allocates 40 per cent of its resources for women and other female households affected in the insurgency and terrorism in Borno State, noting that its budgetary allocations stood at $4 million (N1.52 billion) and could increase to $30-40 million by 2020, lamenting that the combination of conflicts and widespread stoppages of basic services exacerbated the crises and threaten recovery of fragile region.

“What we want to achieve is stabilising all affected communities in a sustainable way with our partners in the United Nations,” Kuehnel said.He listed communities’ interventions to include provision of basic services, security, strengthening and partnership in governance and livelihoods revitalisation in agriculture, herding and fishing.

Kuehnel said in Ngom and Kimba communities, 400 households were empowered with cash transfers to resuscitate their cattle market, where 3, 000 cows were sold before the insurgency, noting: “Stabilising communities requires an integrated package that will tackle the acute recovery needs, like livelihoods, reconstruction, local governance and community security all in one go.”

He said the agency is to complement life-saving interventions with sustainable integrated solutions at the community level to stabilise their lives and lay the foundation for longer-term recovery of all returning displaced persons, adding: “UNDP aims to roll out the integrated package in 10 peripheral villages in each of the large towns, impacting the lives of over a million conflict-affected people. “This will create an enabling environment for people to return when the time is right.”