May 04, (THEWILL) – The United Nations has reiterated its commitment to ensure the welfare of Boko Haram victims and Internally Displaced Person (IDPs) in the North-East of Nigeria, remains a top priority.
UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, made this known on Tuesday in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital
“I want to congratulate the Governor for what I have seen today and to tell him that I want to appeal strongly to the international community to understand Borno as a state of hope, to support humanitarian action in Borno and to recognise the enormous challenges that Borno faces with climate change, with still Boko Haram active even if weakened, and to invest in the Borno of hope, to provide support to the projects of the government of Borno and of the civil society in Borno in order to create the conditions for real development; to create the conditions in which schools work, hospitals work, jobs exist. In which people get to live in peace and people get to live in solidarity.
“It is absolutely essential to understand that, in a situation like this, it’s not enough to provide humanitarian assistance. I am grateful to all those from the international community that have supported the people of Borno with humanitarian assistance.
“But the people I met today want more than that. The people I met today in reality want to go back home in safety and dignity. And when one looks at the State, one understands that the way to fight terrorism effectively, is to provide not only hope, but a future of reality. It is to invest in livelihoods, it is to invest in the reintegration of those that have been in the past recruited by these terrorist groups, by Boko Haram”, he said.
According to the UN Chief, “the Borno State I have heard about in many circumstances around my life as High Commissioner for Refugees and then as Secretary-General, was a Borno State of terrorism, of violence, of displacement, of despair. This is not the Borno that I found today,
“The Borno I found today is a Borno of hope. It’s a Borno with future and I was very impressed to see the policy that is being applied here, recognising that we don’t fight terrorism just by military means.”
Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, who briefed Guterres on the humanitarian crisis in the region, explained that the IDPs had stayed for several years in camps and were eager to return to their homes that are yet to be reconstructed.
He used the occasion to call on UN for more support in the ongoing rehabilitation, reconstruction and resettlement of the IDPs.
Responding, Guterres said, “the Governor has told me that he would need to create new facilities able to have effective reintegration of these ex-terrorists, or ex-combatants. I promised that we will be fully supportive of that project and when that project is formulated,
“I am ready to be an advocate of it and to be telling different countries around the world that they need to invest because the best thing we can do for peace is to reintegrate those that in a moment of despair became terrorists but now want to become good citizens and want to contribute to the well-being of their brothers and sisters.”
The UN Chief Scribe, who is on a 2-day official visit to Nigeria is expected to officiate a wreath-laying ceremony for victims of the 2011 bombing at the U.N. house, Abuja, Nigeria.
Guterres had earlier visited Senegal and Niger Republic, all in West Africa. Nigeria is the third country in the region to be officially visited since he took over the leadership of the United Nations.
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