At least, 370, 389 households have been displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency.
A don at the University of Ilorin, Dr. Abiola Adimula, stated this in a paper she released to journalists in Abuja on Monday.
She presented the paper at the 39th Annual Conference of Fulbright Association at George Washington University in the United States.
Adimula disclosed that as of August, the number of Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria was 2,093,030.
The don, who is of the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, UNILORIN, described the management of IDPs camps as weak.
The university lecturer stated, “The total number of people internally displaced by armed conflicts and violence worldwide was estimated to be 38 million people and 12.5 million IDPs in the 21 sub-Saharan countries.
“Nigeria, in recent times, has experienced a lot of internal displacement of its people, largely arising from the activities of insurgency, militancy, conflicts and to a lesser extent, natural disasters.
“By NEMA-Displacement Tracking Matrix XI DTM (August, 2016) the number of IDPs in Nigeria is 2,093,030 being 370,389 households. The breakdown is as follows: Borno (1,446,829); Adamawa (163,559) and Yobe (135,442);
“Out of the figure, 89.74% had been displaced by the insurgency alone; 8.85% displaced by communal clashes and 1.41% by natural disasters.”
According to her, the problems in IDPs camps include large populations; overcrowded accommodation in tents; lack of structure in terms of care of IDPs; poor access to facilities; and lack of concrete arrangement for IDPs reintegration.
She stated, “The camp management structure is weak, putting the IDPs in overcrowded accommodation, usually in men and women sections without necessarily separating them in terms of the care the IDPs require, presents a clumsy and ineffective intervention in the camps.
“This leads to poor service of needs most times because the facilities that should have been used for particular IDPs in specific needs are overstretched to cover all, including those that do not require the particular intervention.
“Sometimes, empower-ment training is given to those in traumatic phase and they fail. Camp management does not treat IDPs to align with their actual needs.”
Adimula recommended four ways of alleviating the challenges facing IDPs in the country.
She said, “After-shock-IDP-Phase-1 is the immediate period after the occurrence of event and consciousness of severe human and material loses. IDPs at this stage experience trauma and they need psycho-social interventions.
“Stabilisation-IDP-Phase-2: is the phase of settlement into a camp/family routine, with predictable system of meeting basic needs. IDPs experience idleness at this stage and they require protection from gender-based violence. Empowerment-“IDP-Phase-3: this is the stage of acquisition of vocational and basic management skills towards economic independence. IDPs need to be trained and equipped economically towards self/family sustenance.
“Reintegration-Post-IDP-Phase: being the phase of coordinated exit from the camp and reintegration into the society as self-sustaining individuals; here the government need to formulate a comprehensive roadmap for resettlement and integration of IDPs back into the society.
“These strategies will bring better streamlined camp management structure for efficient co-ordination; effective management of available inadequate resources only to those in specific need, and efficient control of the flow of people in the camp- toward a systematic exit from camps and reintegration into the society.”
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