WorldStage Newsonline– The ECOWAS Parliament and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) mission have made a case for the adoption and implementation of coherent and holistic return and resettlement polices for to the multiple challenges identified during its fact finding mission report on the North- east Nigeria.
The bodies while presenting for an adoption of the report of the parliamentary fact finding mission in Northern Nigeria at the plenary section of the 2018 first ordinary session of the ECOWAS parliament in Abuja, urged that the commission and the Federal Government should enhance support and assistance to the authorities of state affected by insurrection.
A participant from the mission and member of ECOWAS parliament Hon. Ibrahim Sadiq, who made the presentation of the fact finding mission, said that the key findings identified at the IDP camps include, high poverty levels; insufficient food supply; malnutrition; restricted access to firewood for cooking; restriction of movement due to insecurity; lack of well-equipped health centres; limited access to advance medical services; youth unemployment resulting in crime, drug addiction and prostitution.
Others are, limited access to secondary school education for children; need for livelihood interventions; diminishing humanitarian support and assistance; inadequate medical assistance; need for strengthened Internal Displaced Persons protection and respect for human rights in cams/site and ultimate desire unanimously expressed by the IDPs to return to their respective homes to start their lives again.
In a plenary section presided by the speaker of the ECOWAS parliament Moustapha Cisse Lo, the fact finding recommendations were listed to include; Access to land for IDPs and returnees should be secured to enable sustainable farming; Agriculture should be explored as sustainable intervention; durable shelters should mad available for the IDPs camps; market for IDPs livelihood should be promoted.
The mission also noted that, civilian protection mechanism established by UNHCR in the camps should be strengthen; allegations of arbitrary detention should be thoroughly investigated in accordance with state laws; secondary school education should be subsidized for IDP returnees’ children.
There was also a recommendation on the need for the continuation of the joint UNHCR-ECOWAS parliament joint fact finding mission to Damasak(Nigeria), Diffa and Tillaberi(Niger) and Gao(Mali).
It was noted that the execution of the missions will enable the two institutions to obtain more information on the conditions of the refugees and IDPs in these locations and gain a broader view of the humanitarian consequences of the crises in West Africa.
