Day Borno IDPs host UN Security Council, discuss living conditions

Two pieces of dirty mats spread on the ground of a hard floor and tightened by ropes and pegs under the scorching sun of Maiduguri, were made available by the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) for the  guests who traveled  all the way from the United Nations Headquarters in New York City of the United States […]

Two pieces of dirty mats spread on the ground of a hard floor and tightened by ropes and pegs under the scorching sun of Maiduguri, were made available by the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) for the  guests who traveled  all the way from the United Nations Headquarters in New York City of the United States of America.

Shortly before their arrival, one piece of the thin mats was already occupied by some IDPs who had  lost either their parents, husbands or children to the Boko Haram insurgency in their respective villages, while the other piece was spared for a high powered delegation of the UN Security Council (UNSC) that visited the IDPs as part of its mission to the Lake Chad Basin countries (Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria).

The delegation that arrived Nigeria on Sunday 5th March, 2017, in a UN flight; landed at Maiduguri International Airport in Borno State around 1200 hours noon and drove in a more-than-a-dozen-white-colored motorcade and all with the UN car-number, straight to the Teachers’ Village IDP camp.

There, the delegation of 14 Ambassadors to the United Nations (UN) from countries of Britain, United States, Egypt, Uruguay, Italy, France, China, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Bolivia, Sweden and Japan, that made up the UN Security Council (UNSC) and that of Senegal as well, stayed for some part of that afternoon in the IDP camp interacting with male and female IDPs, as well as women activists from some Maiduguri based Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), to get  first-hand information about the Boko Haram crises and humanitarian services being currently offered to the victims.

Though the series of meetings at the camp were held behind closed doors, but our correspondent, before he was sent out, overheard Ambassador Matthew Rycroft of the United Kingdom, who led the Council visit as President of the 15-nation body for the month of March, telling the IDPs through an interpreter that they were there to see and hear directly from them as victims of Boko Haram terrorism.

“We’re tired being in hands of SEMA (Borno State Emergency Management Agency). Because, they have been maltreating us and we don’t know where we should go and report them; and since you are now here to hear from us, we plead with you to please help take over from SEMA. They lack empathy towards us,” an IDP was overheard during the meeting, telling the interpreter to pass the message to the delegation.

After this session of over 30 minutes, the Council met with representatives of women-IDPs in the camp where about half of the displaced persons are children, with 379 of them infants, the 14 visiting Ambassadors moved to the next tent that was located behind the first one, where they also met with another set of representatives, but this time for women activists working to support the IDPs in various camps within the metropolis.

Our correspondent, who was at the camp and curiously following the events as they were unfolding, immediately approached the tent that was just left by the Council, saw the representatives of women-IDPs who looked exasperated and uttering words as they were coming out from the tent, and asked them that could any one please give very brief points about what they just discussed with the delegation of the UN Security Council.

“We were just asked to talk about life generally in this camp which we did,” said one of the women who seemed upset and reluctant to talk about what transpired between them and the visiting Ambassadors.  

“Come, come here please, I will tell you everything that was just discussed here,” another participant of the meeting who looked enthusiastic shouted, telling our correspondent: “This is our day to express our long-standing reservations on how we’ve been kept here without care from SEMA and NEMA.  

“These white people (UN Security Council delegation) were not happy about SEMA. We’ve told them everything that SEMA and NEMA have been doing here in this camp for the past two years. We’ve told them how SEMA has been politicizing distribution of food and other items here in this camp whenever they are brought,” Hajja Falmata, 28, said, adding: “As you see me in this camp, I belong to the Kukawa L.G.A. group where I have been denied food for long, because I’m no longer with my husband whom I came in with, and he conspired with SEMA to deny me food.”  

Another woman also accused SEMA officials of diversion of relief items in the camp, saying the food items that were brought in the previous day, was just to show off as the UN delegation was set to visit the next day. “We have told the visitors that it’s a double punishment for us in this camp. We fled Boko Haram leaving all our belongings behind, came here to Maiduguri for refuge and found ourselves in this situation,” she said, yelling.  

Our correspondent observed that on seeing the face of SEMA’s chairman, the grumbling  IDPs suddenly and collectively began repeatedly yelling abusive words against SEMA and its officials thus: “We don’t want SEMA again.” “SEMA and NEMA are thieves.” “Let the white people replace SEMA.” “SEMA does not have empathy whatsoever.”  

In the blink of an eye, the scene had turned out be a center of attraction for journalists and security officials accompanying the visiting 14 Ambassadors in the camp. Throughout this uncontrollable noise  making, the guests were still holding their next meeting with some women activists invited as scheduled by the organizers of the programme.  

Also within 30 minutes or so of this second meeting, a rumour spread among the grumbling IDPs, refueling the ongoing protest that the women at that moment were meeting with the UN Security Council delegation inside the next tent, were hired and brought in by SEMA to come and speak on behalf of the IDPs in order to justify their misdeeds.  

Trying to put out the fire of the protest before the Council members end their second meeting and initiate the third one, whose audience were representatives of men-IDPs that were already seated inside another tent waiting their guests, the SEMA Chairman was asked to leave that particular place and move  to where the noises would not disrupt the series of meetings being held by the delegation.   

In Boko Haram hard-hit Borno state in the North-eastern part of the country, the UN Security Council members joined a circle of survivors, many of whom were women whose husbands and children were killed by Boko Haram, and who are struggling to feed themselves and the remnants of families that they have left.

“Their accounts of a life in crisis were beyond sobering,” Mr. Rycroft told a news conference the delegation held at the end of their one-day visit Maiduguri.  

The President of the 15-nation body for the month of March and UK’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Mathew Rycroft soon after series of meetings at the IDP camp, led the delegation to meet and commend officers and soldiers of the Operation Lafiya Dole that  are currently fighting the Boko Haram insurgency across the Nigeria’s North-east region.  

“UN Security Council (UNSC) is committed to supporting the Nigerian Military in ending the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria,” Ambassador Rycroft told the Theater Commander of the Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj.-Gen. Lucky Irabor during their meeting.

He also said the UNSC is united and resolved to help Nigerian government in overcoming its humanitarian challenges in the Lake Chad basin, as their respective countries will scale up their humanitarian assistance, adding, the crisis in the North-east will no longer be a neglected crisis, as the UN Security Council have assessed the situation on ground, describing it as one of the worlds worst humanitarian crisis in recent times.

On his part, Maj.-Gen. Lucky Irabor told the delegation that the Nigerian military has adopted a code of conduct and rules of engagement to ensure that human rights  of citizens are not violated, saying, the Army has constituted a court marshal for trying ‘bad eggs’ in the military.

He added that the military has decimated the capacity of Boko Haram insurgents in the country ,to the level that the insurgents can no longer hold any Nigerian territory, adding that, they don’t have capacity to launch coordinated and deadly attacks.

The UN delegation also paid a courtesy call on Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima before they proceeded to the airport, where they held a 10-minutes press conference and immediately boarded their flight for Abuja.  

Governor Shettima appealed to the UN Security Council to scale up their assistance to the humanitarian crisis in the North-east, saying, his administration has accorded priority to the  education sector, more especially girl-child education and gender empowerment.

He noted that the root cause of the Boko Haram insurgency is illiteracy, poverty and unemployment, saying the Borno state government is investing heavily on agriculture.

He also appealed to the United Nations (UN) and international communities to assist the Nigerian government, recalling that in the past, the international communities have neglected the humanitarian crisis in the North-east.

He however, noted that now things have improved, commending the ICRC, World Food Program and other UN agencies for scaling up their aid.