By Amos Aar
THE UNITED States Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has launched Rapid Response Fund (RRF) project in Benue state to intervene in crisis-affected population in multi sectors in order to save lives in Benue state.
The 6-month programme which was inaugurated at Government House, Makurdi witnessed the presence of different national and international partners as well as civil society organisations.
IOM Chief of Missions, Mr Laurent De Boeck, said the organisation has conducted an exercise which discovered four hundred thousand (400,000) persons displaced in seventeen (17) local government areas of Benue State which determined the new pace of intervention for the state.
He promised that IOM would continue to work in harmony with the Benue State Government and SEMA to return IDPs to their ancestral homes through dialogue and peaceful means.
IOM representative, John Asanyi, in a presentation, said RRF was supposed to meet basic needs of the displaced population occasioned by crisis and climate change through interventions and has targeted two hundred and thirteen thousand, six hundred and forty (213,640) individual displaced persons in the state. He also intimated that the program was designed to intervene in the areas of shelter, settlement, water and hygiene, multipurpose cash assistance and protection that has also been expanded to provide humanitarian coordination, information management and assessment to be implemented in the state.
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Asanyi further explained that the duration of the program was supposed to be three months only. But given the peculiarity of the humanitarian situation in Benue state, the intervention is expected to cover six months.
In his remarks, USAID representative, Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, Mr Patrick Lubem, said the United Nations in partnership with IOM would decongest the overpopulated IDP camps, increase access to portable water and sanitation facilities as well as cash to vulnerable persons especially women, children and the disabled.
Also speaking, Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr Hyacinth Alia, told the development partners that his administration was working in harmony with security agencies to address all forms of insecurity in order to restore peace across the state.
Governor Alia directed the Durable Solutions Taskforce to support implementation of the RRF project in the state to by ensuring that the IDPs benefit it maximally. He also tasked the Director General, Bureau for International Development and the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to report progress made on the project to him on a monthly basis.
Earlier on Wednesday at Ichuwa IDP camp, North Bank Makurdi, IOM donated essential households materials worth over 2 million, including mattresses, gallons, blankets, mosquito nets, cooking utensils, buckets, among others to IDPs in Benue State.
On their part, the United Nations (UN) donated 2,000 prepared sets of dignity kits to preserve the dignity of women and girls while in the camps.
