Security for IDP camps

This category of victims often fall prey to fraudsters.  According to some of them, particularly the women among them, when people of goodwill take relief materials to the camps, some male youths or hoodlums would rush and collect the materials, thereby depriving the bona fide victims of the insurgency.At the Gwoza IDP camp at Kuchi […]

This category of victims often fall prey to fraudsters.  According to some of them, particularly the women among them, when people of goodwill take relief materials to the camps, some male youths or hoodlums would rush and collect the materials, thereby depriving the bona fide victims of the insurgency.
At the Gwoza IDP camp at Kuchi Goro village, in Abuja for instance, a youth representative said they were being challenged by the rising threats of miscreants who now target relief convoys to the camps. The women are vulnerable and may not have the stamina to scramble for relief aid and elbow their way with the strong and young men, who may be spoiling for a fight. The absence of security at such places means that such miscreants will always have their way.
If there was enough security, the hoodlums would not have entered the camps in the first place, much less snatch the relief materials from the beneficiaries and get away with it. And where there are young men among the IDPs at the camp, there should be sanity in sharing of relief materials.  
It is the responsibility of government to secure the camps, apart from providing basic needs like water, medication, decent sleeping quarters and conveniences.
Lack of security at the camps exposes women and children to danger more than the men. They are also at risks of activities of potential rapists and other forms of harassment.
The IDPs survived and ran away from one problem, leaving their homes and means of livelihood. Some are traumatised because of the experience. The government should provide for them so they do not become victims of yet another security problem. There should be proper screening at the camps to weed out non-IDPs that go in there to share in the relief materials meant for the IDPs that have been registered.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) should take charge of authenticating and verifying the actual number of the displaced persons, instead of reliance on figures generated by external nongovernmental organisations. The absence of this method could be the reason some of the displaced people go and stay with their relatives, for example in Maiduguri, only for them to resurface at meal times, bringing along with them other relatives that are not IDPs. Accurate figures are important for planning and disaster response purposes.
Those that are forced by circumstances beyond their control to become refugees in their own land should, as a matter of fact, be among the priorities of the government, certainly not be left at the mercy of hoodlums and miscreants.
Their security and wellbeing should be government’s concern so that no one goes in without being screened, or else even insurgents can walk in at will and claim IDP status.
Genuine IDPs should be encouraged to leave makeshift abodes in uncompleted buildings and relocate immediately to designated camps until the security challenges are addressed and they can return home to their normal lives.