Former defence minister Gen Danjuma named as head of IDP resettlement committee

FORMER defence minister retired Lt General Theophilus Danjuma has been appointed to head a committee to rehabilitate damaged infrastructure and resettle internally displaced persons (IDPs) across the northeast by Boko Haram's reign of terror.

 

Nigeria now has the largest number of IDPs in the world as the number of refugees from the Boko Haram insurgency surged to a record 2.2m in November.  According to the latest figures published by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of IDP's in Nigeria ballooned to 2.2m two months ago from 1.5m in August.

 

To help address the crisis, President Muhammadu Buhari has named General Danjuma as head of a yet-to-be inaugurated committee. Business mogul and Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote was also named as a member of the committee which President Buhari said would soon be formally inaugurated.

President Buhari stated that all forms of assistance, generated locally and from foreign countries as promised by the G7 industrialised countries would be channelled through the committee when inaugurated. He said the government has already compiled a list of damaged infrastructure, including schools and bridges and handed it to the leaders of the G7 and the US.