2.2 Million North-East Residents, 452,363 Households Displaced – FG

The Federal Government has stated that a total of 2,200,357 Internally Displaced Persons amounting to 452,363 displaced households are now in the North-Eastern part of Nigeria.

This was disclosed on Thursday through the National Emergency Management Agency.

The agency stressed that the Boko Haram insurgency, communal clashes, and natural disasters were the causes of the displacements.

NEMA revealed this in its 2021 Annual Report, which was submitted by the agency to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development in Abuja.

A section of the report, seen by our correspondent, read in part, “Among the human-induced disasters, the Boko Haram insurgency has resulted in the displacement of people across North-East and North-Central Nigeria adding to the pre-existing caseload of IDPs displaced by the communal clashes and natural disasters that continue to affect parts of the country.

“The report of round 39 Displacement Tracking Matrix carried out in the North-East by NEMA and International Organization for Migration as of December 30, 2021, put the number of IDPs at 2,200,357 amounting to 452,363 displaced households.”

The report stated that due to Nigeria’s geo-climatic and socio-economic condition, as in most countries of the world, Nigeria was vulnerable in varying degrees to disaster as a result of climate change to floods, landslides, and tidal waves, coastal erosion, sand-storms, dust-storms, and drought.

It said the country was also vulnerable to desertification locust/insect infestations, oil spillage, epidemic, pandemic, terrorism, banditry, and other man-made disasters.

“While some of these disasters are rapid, others are slow-onset, resulting in catastrophic situations leading to loss of lives and property and degradation of the environment,” the report stated.