7.6% Displaced Persons Live In IDP Camps

It explained that in Yobe and Adamawa all IDPs were displaced because of insurgency. About 92.4 per cent of Internally Displaced Persons live with host families while a paltry 7.6 per cent live in official IDP camps, a report by the International Organisation for Migration has revealed.

The study of the displaced persons was conducted in Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe States in December 2014.

It puts the total number of IDPs at 389,281, with Yobe having the highest number of displaced persons of 125,991, followed by Adamawa, 123,601, and Taraba, 81,790 IDPs.

Presenting the report during the 12th National Humanitarian Coordination Forum Meeting held at the headquarters of the National Emergency Management Agency in Abuja, the IOM Project Officer, Stephanie Daviot, said 54 per cent of the IDPs were children.

More than half of the displaced children, the report said, were not up to five years of age, while 42 per cent were adult.

The Displacement Tracking Matrix Report of the IOM further showed that Yobe State had been directly affected by the insurgency with parts of its territory fully or partially occupied by the Boko Haram Terrorist group.

In Adamawa state, the report attributed the large number of IDPs to the proximity of the state to Borno, the centre of the insurgency, and most especially continuous attack by the terrorist group in Michika, Madagali, Mubi North and South LGAs.

This, it said, caused displacement from North to the South of Adamawa State, mainly Yola North, Yola South, Fufore, Song and Girei.

The report attributed the reason for displacement in the North East to insurgency, with 77.1 per cent displaced, while 22.4 per cent of the IDPs were forced to leave their home because of communal clashes and 0.5 per cent were displaced by natural disaster.