Borno, NEMA deliver relief materials to Dikwa IDPs

TO overcome the humanitarian challenge of feeding over 33,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS) in Borno State, the state government has supplied 84 tons of rice to fleeing residents and villagers in Dikwa town.

This is coming as the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has completed arrangements for the deliveries relief materials to recently liberated towns of Borno State.

The Zonal Coordinator of the agency in Northeast, Alhaji Mohammed Kanar disclosed this in Maiduguri, while briefing newsmen on the modalities of distributing relief materials to liberated towns.

Addressing a news conference in Maiduguri Wednesday at the Musa Usman Secretariat complex, the Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Usman Zanna disclosed that the influx of displaced persons, continued to overstretch camp facilities.

He said, following the ongoing operation by the military under the ‘Operation Lafiya Dole’ in and around Dikwa axis and surrounding communities of Mafa, Marte, Kala Balge Local Government areas, IDPs are still trooping to Dikwa camp, which was established by the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).

He said already the government has released funds to cater for the victims of the insurgency, mostly drawn from the affected council areas and now taking refuge in Dikwa town, 85 kilometres from Maiduguri.

He added that a team of medical experts has also been dispatched to Dikwa camp to cater for those who are sick and to offer free medical treatment for IDPs who are mostly women and children.

According to him, the military and the government are doing their best to ensure that peace returns to the affected communities of Dikwa, Gulumba and Banki, a border town with Cameroun.

Kanar, while addressing the IDPs, pledged that as soon as final clearance is received from the military, rehabilitation of structures destroyed by insurgents will be done to enable the displaced persons to return to their homes. He said this was the second time that the agency was sharing relief items to people of Dikwa in recent time.