‘FG should tackle humanitarian crisis in N/East’
The Federal Government must take “comprehensive” steps to address the present humanitarian, food crises and other human rights violation cases in the troubled northeast of Nigeria, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said yesterday.
The commission, at its governing council meeting held in Gombe over the weekend observed a “deteriorating human rights situation in the North East, including the abduction of over 200 students from Government Girls Secondary School, (GGSS) Borno State.”
It added that the precarious situation in the region has led to serious loss of lives of civilians and security agents, mass casualty violence and growth in forced displacement of residents.
A communique issued at the end of the meeting, demanded a “development and urgent deployment of a comprehensive humanitarian plan for the North East particularly those aimed at addressing food security crisis, access to trauma care and support, and forced displacement.
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“Regular and continuing inter-governmental cooperation and dialogue in resolving these difficult challenges, in addition to putting in place effective measures to ensure accountability the perpetrators.”
While commending the federal and state governments’ efforts toward tackling the humanitarian challenges, the governing council also urged the government to further cultivate regional and international cooperation for the amelioration of the situation and sufferings of the victims in the region.
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The meeting also deliberated on the sundry instances of illegal detention of civilians by “unauthorized entities,” stressing that such power of detention, as stipulated in the constitution, only rests on authorized institutions in gazetted facilities.
Other issues considered by the governing council’s meeting include the 134 cases of public complaints, which were disposed, the samesex marriage Act, frequent instances of abandonment of young children and rights to participate in the electoral process.