NEMA DG warns Against Stigmatisation of Rescued Boko Haram Victims
The Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency, Muhammad Sani-Sidi, has confirmed that only six of the girls and women rescued from Boko Haram returned pregnant.
Speaking at an interactive media platform over the weekend, Sani-Sidi commended the military for the rescue and also warned against stigmatisation of the almost 300 rescued women and children as they try to settle back into society.
Stating that most of the rescued are children, he said: “Out of the 275, sixty three came unaccompanied and that is very worrisome, it is a terrible situation to have children under the age of five unaccompanied, meaning they have lost their parents and we cannot link them with their parent at the moment, six of them came with pregnancy and that is a sympathetic situation.
“I must put it on record that only six of them came with pregnancy and we must add however that we must be very careful not to stigmatize this innocent Nigerians who were under captivity and came back with pregnancy so that we don’t end up stigmatizing the child that is yet unborn. I think we must respect their rights and be careful by the way we talk about the issue and we should respect their rights.”
He also called for the involvement of more stakeholders, while thanking the federal government, Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and Gombe state governments, for their tremendous support.
He continued: “I must say that we have been receiving tremendous support from other actors. We have received training and support for our personnel from the UN system, the Nigerian Red Cross Society has been with us throughout these trying periods, they have been in all our camps and all the other state emergency management agencies and indeed NGOs and civil societies. It has been a close collaboration and I must say they have all done very well.”
Addressing notions that IDP camps will soon be dismantled as the war against the Boko Haram insurgency is proving successful, Sani-Sidi said:
“There is no specific time frame for the existence of these camps. You live in the camp as long as possible because your communities must be secured before they return. The military will have to inform NEMA that a particular community is safe before the IDPs are prepared to be returned.
“We have started like when the military informed us that Mubi North and Mubi South in Adamawa state are safe and people can go back. So we went to the community to carry out an assessment along with other stakeholders to ensure that their communities are safe because you can’t take somebody from safety to harm.
“Where they are now in camp is secured so we have to carry out independent assessment in line with international best practices to be sure that their communities are actually safe for them to return. Like seven local governments now in Adamawa state have been declared safe, so the process of return has begun and we are providing support to the IDPs to be able to return to their homes.”
