Insurgency: CITAD urges state of emergency in North-east

By Bashir Mohammed
Kano

Executive Director, Centre for Information Technology and Development  (CITAD), Dr. Yunusa Zakari Yau, has called on the federal government to declare a state of humanitarian emergency in the North-east.
Speaking to newsmen in Kano yesterday, Yau said the call had become necessary as greater action was much-needed to rescue millions of people from starvation.

Yau said there was also the compelling need for developing a comprehensive frame work for humanitarian intervention in the North-east, stressing that the federal government was only using the
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) act which focused attention on refugees from other countries rather than on internally displaced persons.
He emphasised the need for the protection of rural communities in the North-east who as soft target had been bearing the worse burden of the insurgency.

He said even the government military offensive against Boko Haram insurgents had continued to record huge success, it was daily revealing a crisis that had been understated as thousands of people were pouring out with no food, medication and shelter.
He called on the National Assembly to, without further delay, conclude deliberations and pass into law the North-east Development Commission Bill “so that an accounting mechanism and structure for coordination of effort in rebuilding and reconstruction of the region would be in place.”