Abuja, 13^th September 2018. As part of its commitment to bringing succour to displaced and socially dislocated citizens, the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) donated some relief items to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Abuja, Nigeria on the 13^th of September 2018.

The gesture is in commemoration of the World Humanitarian Day (WHD), marked worldwide at the behest of the United Nations (UN), on the 19^th of August 2018, by the Commission in league with other stakeholders such as the Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), and the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The items donated by the ECOWAS Commission included bags of rice, cartons of oil as well as tons of clothing materials.

Handing over the items to the IDPs at their camp in Karimajiji, in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, the Commission’s Director, Humanitarian Affairs Mrs. Florence Iheme told the recipients that the ECOWAS Commission will continue its humanitarian services to the displaced persons in the region as part of its larger corporate responsibility to the people of West Africa.

Conveying warm greetings to the IDPs on behalf of the President of the Commission Jean Claude Kassi-Brou, Mrs Iheme assured them that their deplorable condition is not lost on the Management of the Commission.

The Director stated that he ECOWAS Commission is helping the government of Nigeria in resolving the insurgency problem that has created humanitarian camps. “ECOWAS is working hard, in support of the Nigerian government and our partners to resolve the problems that brought you here” she added.

The Head, IDP Department of the Nigerian NCFRMI Mrs Schizzer Nasara Bada stressed the need for continuous good behaviour by the IDPs noting that international agencies and regional Organisations such as ECOWAS will not abandon them until they are reintegrated into the society.

The IDPs, mostly women and children were elated by the ECOWAS gesture. The Chairman of the Karimajiji camp Mr. Mohammed Abubakar supported by their Women Leader Hajia Kaltumi Abubakar expressed their appreciation and urged more support and kindness from ECOWAS.

Apart from pledging about one million dollars’ worth of humanitarian assistance package for  the troubled areas of the region, the ECOWAS Commission has continued to provide timely assistance to IDPs in the affected communities in Nigeria, Niger and Sierra Leone, among others.