United Nations High Commission on Refugees Country Representative to Nigeria and Economic Community of West Africa, Mr Antonio Jose Canhandula, revealed that over 2.8million Internally Displaced Persons IDPs in Nigeria, the organisation could only reach and assist about 1.8 million of the affected.
Canhandula made the disclosure, while speaking during the donation of N10 million cheque by Senior Pastor Sam Adeyemi of Daystar Christian Centre to the UNHCR to be used for the care of the IDPs across the country.
According to the UNHCR chief, the challenges faced by the body in reaching out to the affected has to mainly with security, saying there was need to ensure one’s security and that of staff of UNHCR who would be involved in such exercise.
Canhandula said there were some local governments in the North- West, including Borno and Adamawa states where UNHCR could not have access, disclosing that he later learnt he was the first UN officer to visit Mubi South, North, Madagali and Michiga in Adamawa State, Northeast Nigeria.
He said there are people there; they do not have a school, roof over their heads, the women are trying to find something to take home for their children, but they cannot, he lamented, describing the negative impact of the crisis as unquantifiable.
Adeyemi also said with the donation, the church hoped to help reduce the statistics of the Internally Displaced Persons IDPs and refugees in the country, even as he promised that the partnership between the church and UNHCR would be ongoing to make impact across the world.