By Sadiq Abubakar
Maiduguri
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said the greatest challenges facing international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) rendering humanitarian services in the North east face at the wake of the Boko Haram crisis, include safety and accessibility to crisis areas.
These problems, according to the INGO, are compounded by inadequate funding to provide shelter, water, health, education, agricultural/poverty alleviation and skill acquisition facilities to the internally displaced persons (IDPs).
The agency said it requires $1.1 billion in 2018 to be able to support and assist humanitarian services and activities in the North east from donor agencies and governments, both home and abroad.
UNDP Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. Edward Kallon, who stated this yesterday at a press briefing with journalists held at the UNDP office in Maiduguri said the organisation has been assisting in the stabilisation of ravaged communities in the region and had supported governments and NGOs in rendering humanitarian services and providing assistance to the displaced people and their communities.
Kallon said the UNDP is a very strong organisation in conflict analysis and supporting governments in providing services to their people, and disclosed that, it has targeted 6.1 million people in the North east for 2018 to assist with the budget of $1.1 billion, with support from donor agencies and governments.
He called on government to also assist and support NGOs to provide humanitarian services to the displaced population, pointing out that, UNDP has been constructing and reconstructing shelter, sources of water supply, schools, clinics among others in many communities in order to help the displaced persons return to their communities.
He called on governments to embark on political process to end the crisis in the North east, stressing that the UNDP has so far supported and assisted various communities and displaced people in different locations within the three states of the region affected by the insurgency; Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
According to him, over 1.6 people have returned home whileabout 1.3 million people were still returning to their host communities and could not reach their destinations due to lack of shelter, water, health, education and other facilities.
