How insecurity hinders assistance to 1m IDPs, by UNHCR

Church donates N10m to agency
Country Representative of United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Nigeria and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Antonio Jose Canhandula, has lamented that of the over 2.8 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria, it could only reach 1.8 million.

He disclosed this yesterday when Daystar Christian Centre donated N10 million to UNHCR in Lagos.

Canhandula said: “The challenge is first of all security, because to be able to help, you need to survive and the first thing is to make sure that my staff are secured when they go to assist. That security means that access to the population is not that easy.

“It is a very difficult situation. This is because of the so many internally displaced persons and we only have access and could assist 1.8m. There are some local governments in Borno State for instance that we do not access to.”

He explained that the same situation applies to Adamawa State, adding that in spite of the situation, the agency had been able to reach Mubi South, North, Madagali and Michiga.

Senior Pastor of Daystar, Sam Adeyemi, said the donation was the Church’s attempt to work in line with the instruction of Jesus that it should care for the poor and needy.