ECOWAS, FG to establish Northeast Solidarity Fund

The ECOWAS Commission and the Federal Government are to set up a joint solidarity fund to provide succour to the people distressed by Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast.

The President of the Commission, Mercel de Sousa, said in Maiduguri yesterday that the establishment of the fund was in compliance with the decision of the 50th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the ECOWAS which took place in Abuja on 17 December, 2016.

Represented by the Acting Director of Humanitarian Affairs of the Commission, Mrs. Florence Iheme, at the official handover of the ECOWAS food assistance worth $1 million to the Northeast, de Sousa said the establishment of the fund was also in expression of support to President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan on the rehabilitation of the distressed population of the region.

“We are delighted to be here to officially handover the food items as promised,” the president of the Commission said while handing over the items to the Director-General of NEMA, Engr. Mustapha Maihaja, witnessed by Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State.

“The food items meant for Maiduguri, Damaturu, Yola and Gombe, comprise maize, sorghum and millet,” he disclosed, concluding, “The final part of the delivery which will consist of 700 metric tonnes of rice will soon arrive at the NEMA warehouses.”

The NEMA DG and Governor Shettima thanked the ECOWAS Commission for its exceptional expression of sympathy, with Governor Shettima specifically praising NEMA for ensuring that all food items donated through it were not fraudulently diverted.