As insecurity lingers in Nigeria, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has disclosed that the country now has 3.3 million people displaced by various crises.
The Vice President of the ECOWAS Commission, Madam Finda Koroma, made this known while speaking at the opening ceremony of the stakeholder workshop on the Best Practices for Stabilization in West Africa.
According to her, the issue of displacement in member states needs to be addressed.
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Koroma said: “We also need to address the crisis of displacement. For instance, Burkina Faso has experienced an explosion in its forced displacement crisis because of militant Islamist group violence originating in Mali. Its current 1.2 million displaced population represents a nine-fold increase from 2019.
“Additionally, violent attacks by Boko Haram in the Northeastern in Nigeria, have resulted in the displacement of 2.5 million Nigerians, whilst kidnappings, extortion, and organised criminal attacks in the Northwest have displaced an additional 800,000 people.
“We need to find a way to return these communities to their homes, safely.”
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She added: “It is against this backdrop that ECOWAS Commission, in partnership with development organisations and governments, have embarked on an ambitious journey of introducing interventions designed to stabilise conflict affected areas, address the root causes of insecurity, and set them on the path for sustainable development through recovery and building community resilience.
“In partnership with the German government, we have established the ECOWAS Fund for Regional Stabilisation and Development in fragile member states. The objective of this programme is to stabilise conflict affected communities through provision of sustainable economic opportunities and essential services for conflict affected communities, construction or rehabilitation of key national infrastructure and capacity building for governance and security institutions.”
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