ABUJA, (ECOWAS Secretariat Report) – As part of its commitment to bringing succour to displaced and socially dislocated citizens, the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has on Thursday 13th of September 2018 donated some relief materials to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Abuja, Nigeria.
The report from the ECOWAS Communication Directorate informed that the gesture is in commemoration of the World Humanitarian Day (WHD) which is marked worldwide at the behest of the United Nations (UN) on the 19th of August 2018. It added that the Commission’s celebration is in league with other stakeholders such as the Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA); National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI); and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
According to the report, the items donated by the ECOWAS Commission included bags of rice, cartons of oil as well as tons of clothing materials.
While handing over the items to the IDPs at their camp in Karimajiji in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, the Commission’s Director for Humanitarian Affairs, Florence Iheme told the recipients that the ECOWAS Commission will continue its humanitarian service to the displaced persons in the region as part of its larger corporate responsibility to the people of West Africa.
In conveying the President of the Commission, Jean Claude Kassi-Brou’s warm greetings to the IDPs, Florence Iheme assured them that their deplorable condition is not lost on the management of the Commission. She also stated that the ECOWAS Commission is helping the Nigerian Government towards resolving the insurgency problem that has created humanitarian camps.
“ECOWAS is working hard in support of the Nigerian government and our partners to resolve the problems that brought you here,” she espoused.
Speaking at the occasion, the Head of the IDP Department of the Nigerian NCFRMI, Schizzer Nasara Bada stressed the need for continuous good behaviour by the IDPs, noting that international agencies and regional organisations such as ECOWAS will not abandon them, until they are reintegrated into the society.
Amidst the over – joy by the IDPs, mostly women and children for the ECOWAS gesture, the Chairman of the Karimajiji Camp, Mohammed Abubakar supported by their Women Leader, Kaltumi Abubakar expressed appreciation and urged more support and kindness from ECOWAS.
Aside from pledging over One Million Dollars worth of humanitarian assistance as package for the troubled areas of the region, the ECOWAS Commission has continued to provide timely assistance to IDPs in the affected communities in Nigeria, Niger and Sierra Leone among others.
