An Internally Displaced Person is a refugee in his own country, driven away from his usual place of residence, because of displacement, like war, insurgency, flooding, famine, other natural disasters, even development and economic changes.
If you are interested in knowing who a refugee is, Chambers English Dictionary defines him as “one, who flees for refuge (usually to another country), especially from religious or political persecution,” which sometimes takes violent dimensions.
As you might know, Nigeria has had insurgency and consequent increase in humanitarian crisis situations in a period that has lasted more than 10 years. This, especially, has turned many hitherto settled Nigerians into the IDPs, who are dependent on others for basic survival.
Drivers of displacement of peoples in Nigeria are the emergence of Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East, conflicts between herdsmen and farmers in the Middle Belt, banditry in several parts of Northern Nigeria, desertification, flooding, fire and other disasters caused by man.
Reports indicate that in 2019, more than 140,000 people were displaced by armed conflicts, while another 2,000 were victims of one disaster or the other. When the International Rescue Committee reported in June 2014 that close to 1,000 Nigerian refugees fled from Boko Haram to Diffa in Niger Republic, no one knew that was just the beginning of the problem.
And as early as January 2020, more than 200 people were forced to flee the mountains of Michika in Adamawa State, while another 2,728 were displaced in Monguno IDP camp following an armed attack.
Nigeria’s IDP coping strategy is in the ministry with the longish name of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, and its predecessor, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and IDPs.
According to the Minister of HADM&SD, Sadiya Umar Faruk, “The ministry is saddled with the responsibilities of admitting (sic) – she probably meant, addressing all humanitarian affairs nationally… as well as formulating policies geared towards preparedness and response.”
She says the immediate focus of the ministry is the rehabilitation, resettlement and integration of communities displaced by insurgency in the North-East corridor of Nigeria. Of course, the ministry also addresses issues arising from natural or man-made disasters in other parts of the country.
The original mandate of the NCRM&IDP was to coordinate national actions for the protection and assistance of refugees, asylum seekers, returnees, and stateless persons. Its responsibilities were expanded to cater for migrants in 2002 and the IDPs in 2009.
To assist displaced Nigerians, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has displayed sagacity in partnering the World Bank, the European Union, other foreign organisations and philanthropists, in a coordinated effort to rebuild the lives of victims of insurgency in the North-East, and communal clashes in Northeastern Nigeria.
But disruption of lives in the Middle Belt, whose youths are demanding that Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State should immediately resign his position as Chairman of Northern Governors’ Forum, equally demands attention.
Jime Yongo of Taraba Tiv Peace Committee reports: “The situation in Wukari (Taraba State) is not good, as displaced Tiv people have not been allowed to return to their ancestral homes.” The Middle Belt Youth Forum’s National Leader, Emma Zopmal, observes that, “Plateau (State) indigenes have suffered gruesome deaths and abduction by Boko Haram insurgents.
There are various IDP camps, spread all over Nigeria. But the major camps are in Borno State, the main theatre of the Boko Haram insurgency; Lagos, a temporary holding house for returnees and vagrants, and Abuja.
The IDP camps in Borno State, about 32 in all, typically host between 120,000 and 130,000 inmates in each of the 16 camps in the state capital, Maiduguri, and more than 400,000 inmates in camps in the rural local government areas.
While reports from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre claimed that there were 1,434,149 IDPs in Borno State, experts believe they are more than two million.
The IDP camp in Ibeju Lekki, in Lagos, was established in 2016 for returnee economic migrants. It was set up as a part of the National Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration Programme, where economic returnees to Nigeria would receive counselling, temporary accommodation, family reunification, acquisition of vocational skills, and other training, before they leave the camp.
But in spite of all the agencies, policies, and schemes put in place to assist the IDPs in Nigeria, there is much to be desired, concerning feeding, water, healthcare, and facilities that human beings take for granted.
The major challenges faced by IDP camp managers are inadequacy of finance, supplies, logistics, security, intolerance and quarrels among the IDPs of different tribes and languages who are forced to cohabit, violence, lack of medical support, rape of young girls (and even married women), extortion, and armed attacks from outside the camps.
An Amnesty International report indicates that young children, girls and married women who are separated from their husbands are routinely exploited and sexually molested by some of those running the IDP camps. The organisation claims that, “Instead of receiving protection from the authorities, women and girls have been forced to succumb to rape, in order to avoid starvation.” And it appears like no one is aware, or is even paying any attention. Talk of double jeopardy.
The testimonies of some IDP camp inmates can be heartrending: Habib Wazirin, of a Borno State IDP camp, laments: “We lose a lot of things. But we are crying for help. We want people to know that we are still here (in the IDP camp), lying idle. We have nothing doing.”
He adds, “We have no food. (For) toilet, a woman… will go to (the) bush to defecate. We (men), also go to the bush. Nobody will bathe in the morning, except in the night (for the obvious reason that there is) lack of place to bathe. (And there is) no borehole.”
Another male refugee complains: “We have no clean water to drink, (and) no health clinic. We are suffering from serious hunger. Most of our women who escaped (the insurgents) with pregnancies die at childbirth, for lack of healthcare facilities, and (there is) no money to take them to hospitals.”
Yet another refugee, a mother, regrets, “I have no means of caring for these my children (who were on display before TV cameras). We need the help of the wealthy. I, alone, with five children (two of which are baby twins), we have nothing to eat. I plead with you to help us with food to eat and water to drink.”
One cruel dimension to the IDP problem is that a large number of displaced kids are not in school. It makes, even more acute, the problem of out-of-school children that the world acknowledges Nigeria to be the worst offender.
As of December 2019, a United Nations Children’s Fund report indicated that the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, most of whom never went to school, rose from 10.5 million to 13.2 million.
Never mind the trifle from the Minister for Education, Adamu Adamu, who is telling himself that the number has dropped to 10.2 million. It is easy to conclude that he is hiding behind one finger, after a Demographic Health Survey report indicates that the figure is back to 13.2 million.
The federal and state governments must act swiftly to address the triple problems of insecurity, internal refugees, and denial of education to young children.
