Alhaji Tijjani Tumsah
NAN-DS-9
IDPs
By Lizzy Okoji and Taiye Edeni
Abuja, Oct. 17, 2017 (NAN) Presidential Committee on North-East Initiative (PCNI) says it has taken drastic measures to check rape and the spread of HIV in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in North East.
The Vice Chairman of the initiative, Alhaji Tijanni Tumsah, said this on Tuesday in Abuja during monthly coordination meeting with stakeholders and development partners working in the North East.
The meeting had “Transitioning From Humanitarian Dependence to Economic Recovery and Sustenance” as its theme.
Tumsah said the committee considered rape as serious crime which led to spread of HIV in IDPs camps “and tackling the menace is our priority toward rebuilding the North East.”
According to him, a good number of perpetrators of the crime have been apprehended and stringent and immediate punishments meted on them.
The vice chairman said the punishment would serve as deterrent to others.
He explained that protection of displaced persons remained a priority of the committee, with focus on creating livelihood for them so they could fend for themselves.
He added that “what we are doing is to bring the North East back to its footing, even better than how it was before.
“The National Assembly had raised concerns just as we also raised concern with relevant partners to offer more protection to IDPs, particularly in camps.
“We are doing this in conjunction with state governments and relevant authorities that are supposed to protect the IDPs.
“Rape is a very unfortunate incident just like the HIV and what we are doing is to impose stringent and immediate punishment for perpetrators of the crime.”
Tumsah said the monthly meeting was a continuous engagement forum where issues relevant to North East development were discussed and solutions proffered.
He noted that the forum was created to have all partners working in the zone to come together to discuss the issues under various sectors.
The PCNI vice chairman said that the challenges faced had been substantially addressed through new strategies mapped out with developing partners.
He, however, added that more money was required to rebuild the region to a position better than it was before the insurgency.
Dr Sidi Muhammed, the Head of Humanitarian issues of the initiative, said the most affected victims at the beginning of the insurgency were health workers and teachers “and this has affected the zeal of people to volunteer to work.
“A lot of people have come up to provide assistance in rebuilding health facilities but the challenge now is that the health workers to work in those facilities are not there.
“If you need to reduce maternal mortality, the group of health workers you need are the midwives; we need to get them into the rebuilt facilities.”
Muhammed said the committee was developing humanitarian response plan for 2018 and 2019 which captured all the things needed to be done to put a stop to cases of rape and increase in the rate of HIV in IDPs camps.
He expressed dismay that camp coordination and management for now was weak “and some people in the camps were taking advantage of others.
The humanitarian head, however, said the PCNI was doing its best to get things right. (NAN)
LIZ/TY/MNA/HA
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Edited by Maureen Atuonwu/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu