Only 84,803 of Nigeria’s 3.2 million refugees are registered- FG

The National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, on Thursday, revealed that it has registered only 84,803 (2 per cent) of the existing 3.2 million internally displaced persons scattered nationwide.

President Muhammadu Buhari

This was as it said Borno State tops the ranks of regions with the highest number of IDPs, numbering 1.6 million, while Ekiti state has 5,377.

The NCFRMI’s Federal Commissioner, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, disclosed this at the 42nd Session of the State House Briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team.

She said “According to the UNHCR matrix index, we have 3.2 million IDPs in Nigeria. And under the Progress V4 platform which is to capture and profile Refugees Data, which we run with the UNHCR, we have been able to register 84,803 refugees in Nigeria.

“We have 1,570 asylum seekers and over 7000 urban refugees. We’ve been able to voluntarily return about 17,334 Nigerians back home. And during the recent evacuation, we’ve been able to record 1,625 evacuees from the Ukraine Russian war.”

Giving a breakdown of the number of IDPs, she said almost every state in the country is home to IDPs with Borno housing the highest number 1,630,284 and Ekiti with the least of 5,377.

The rest include Zamfara (678,000), Benue (300,000), Adamawa (208,334), Yobe (156,437), Niger (150,380), Katsina (130,113), Cross River (101,404), Ebonyi (93,404), Plateau (91,524), and Taraba (82,661).

Others are Bauchi (65,595), Nasarawa (46,769), Imo (42,335), FCT (31,029), Kwara (25,024), Kogi (20,477), Kano (17,981), Bayelsa (12,292), Akwa Ibom (10,062), Edo (11,716), Oyo (8,912), Rivers (8,119), Ondo (7,012), Delta (6,172) and Ogun (5,623).

She explained that the pilot phase for the construction of five resettlement cities has begun in Borno, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara and Nasarawa, while that of Edo State is yet to begin.

“We have started a piloting phase of our project resettlement in 2020. The project resettlement city will entail building small cities because Persons of Concern 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 State, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Nasarawa and Edo State. Most of them are now at between 70-90 per cent completion but that of Edo State is about to take off,” she said.