- Banditry has displaced 11,000 children and 29,774 people into IDP camps in Niger State, causing a strain on resources
- The state’s minister of humanitarian affairs launched the School to Kitchen empowerment program at an IDP camp to address these challenges
Banditry has forced 11,000 children out of school and 29,774 people into IDP camps in Niger State, according to the state’s commissioner for humanitarian affairs and disaster management, Hon. Ahmed Baba Suleiman Yumu.
Dr. Betta Edu, the state’s minister of humanitarian affairs, launched the School to Kitchen empowerment programme at the Gwada IDP camp in Shiroro local government area.
Yumu lamented the daily influx of internally displaced people into various IDP camps across the state, calling it alarming and pathetic because the state was overburdened.
“Of the 29, 774 internally displaced people in the state, 27,750 are women, 11,113 are school-age children, 3,201 are men, and 180 are people with special needs.” “We have various IDP camps outside Shiroro in the local government areas of Mariga, Kontagora, Mashegu, Rijau, Mokwa, and Munya,” the commissioner explained.
He stated that the state was tasked with providing necessary amenities, combating banditry, and converting primary and secondary schools into internally displaced persons’ camps.
He also revealed that bandits constantly attacked 11 of the 25 local government areas in the state’s three senatorial zones, forcing people to flee to various IDP camps.
The minister who was the special guest at the flag-off, bemoaned the state’s 400 school closures, calling them “unacceptable.”
She assured that the federal government was doing everything possible to restore peace to troubled communities and allow displaced people to return home.
She expressed concern that there were over 11,000 out-of-school children across various IDP camps in the state and urged donor agencies to assist the government in educating children in the camps.