‘IDPs remain in camp till communities are safe’

The Presidential Committee on North East Initiative (PCNI) has said Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are still in camps because some of the communities they should return to are not safe.

The IDPs will remain in camps until their communities become safe and habitable, the committee added.

The committee’s Vice Chairman Tijjani Tumsah, spoke to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. He said the committee will allow IDPs return to their communities “only when it has been certified safe for return”.

His words: “Efforts are on to rebuild and restore homes of the IDPs, and they can only return when all those places are safe; the number of people returning to their communities is of course increasing.

“As we have more military successes, people now move back to their homes. We have to continuously prepare to ensure that once they get back home, they are safe and can resume their livelihood.

“Most of the people are farmers and farming resumption requires that you are safe. When you go to the farm, a lot of these areas are still not safe for that to happen; so they continue to stay in camps.”

Tumsah hinted that the committee was considering creating new settlements in secured areas since the number of people returning to liberated communities was increasing.

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