Insurgency
By Mohammed Mamman
Damaturu, Aug. 16, 2018 (NAN) The UN has called for a political process to complement the military approach towards ending the Boko Haram insurgency in the North east.
Mr Edward Kallon, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, stated this on Thursday in Damaturu during a visit to Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe.
Kallon lauded the military efforts in taming the activities of insurgency in the area, saying this should be complemented with a political process to end the conflict.
He said there was need to reach out to people who were conscripted without believing in the insurgents’ ideology and need to be approached through political process.
The coordinator also suggested the need to integrate humanitarian efforts in the social response system of government.
He identified challenges in economy, health, education and governance as contributing factors to the prolonged conflict in the region.
Kallon attributed climate change and the effects of desertification to the farmers and grazers conflicts in the country.
He called for a review of the traditional conflict resolution mechanism used by earlier generations in resolving conflicts in the communities.
Responding, Gaidam said government had formulated strategies to speed up the return of displaced persons to their original communities.
He said government had introduced a home grown programme by providing displaced persons with building materials to rebuild their houses.
“There is the need for international and local NGOs to key into this programme to complement the effort of the state government in the drive to rebuild the destroyed communities,” he said. (NAN)
MM/IS
=====