Refugees Commission Mulls Resettlement Cities For IDPs

National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons has said it has begun the construction of five resettlement cities for use by displaced persons in the country.

The federal commissioner, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, disclosed this to State House correspondents yesterday during the weekly ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team.

According to her, there are over 3.2 million refugees in Nigeria but the authorities have so far registered 84, 803 in the country, with only 17,334 offering to return home.
She listed Borno, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Nasarawa and Edo as the states already designated for the pilot phase of the project.

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Suleiman-Ibrahim said, “When displacements happen; flood, communal clashes, people lose their homes and means of livelihood. So, we started a pilot phase of our project resettlement in 2020. The project resettlement city will entail building small cities because Persons of Concern (PoCs) have three options of doable solutions.

“They can either locally integrate, resettle or they can go back to their homes but sometimes they are unable to go back home and that is why there is a need for building new communities or strengthening the capacity of their host communities.

“We are in the third phase of our resettlement city project but the pilot phase is in Borno, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Nasarawa and Edo States. Most of them are now at between 70-90 percent completion but that of Edo State is about to take off.”

She also said as part of its doable solutions, the Commission will proceed to address the issue of hunger as well as implement sundry empowerment programmes for the displaced persons, even as they imbibe new forms of livelihood.

Suleiman-Ibrahim who noted the recent adoption of the National IDP Policy in 2021 by the Federal Executive Council, described the decision as epic, saying, “that gives us the legal framework and clearly highlights everybody’s role including the IDPs and the host communities.

“We have been able to continue to strengthen the psycho-social support system for the Commission because people are displaced, they go through all kinds of trauma so, psycho-social support is key.

““We have begun the piloting phase for the transitional learning centers in some locations, Edo, Zamfara, Imo, Bauchi, Federal Capital Territory and Katsina. We’ve been able to give persons of concern access to COVID-19 vaccines and also conduct medical outreaches in collaboration with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency.