CAN seeks global attention on IDPs’ plight
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has called for urgent global attention to the plight of Internally Displaced Persons ( IDPs) in Nigeria.
The president of the association, Dr. Samson Ayokunle, said yesterday in Abuja that despite the displacement regarded by many international bodies as among the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world, it was disheartening that it had not received substantial humanitarian response from the world, particularly the world’s most powerful nations compared to other disasters of dimensions in parts of the world.
Ayokunle was represented by CAN’s Vice President, Prof. Joseph Otubu at a capacity building workshop organised by the association and the 21ST Century Wilberforce Initiative of USA with the theme: “Religious Freedom in Northern and Central Nigeria”.
Ayokunle said: “Come to the aid of many victims of insurgency in many Internally Displaced People’s camps or homes who are naked, jobless, orphaned, maimed or widowed. They are human beings and need smaller other your and our assistance in order to bounce back to life again.”
He also commended President Muhammadu Buhari for confronting the Boko Haram insurgency in order to restore peace to Nigeria, saying Nigerians were behind the president, the military and other security agencies working to restore order.
The Vice President of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, Dr. Elijah Brown who presented a report on insurgency in the country, said what was unfolding in northern and central Nigeria was one of the gravest current humanitarian crises in the world.
“The terrorist activities were aided by the already existing foundational discrimination problems against ethnic and religious minorities in the northern region of the country. Muslim and Christian communities in North-eastern Nigeria are profoundly and negatively impacted by the terrorist violence pursued by Boko Haram. In the Middle Belt, Fulani militant attacks are significantly escalating with the net effect that in the name of creating grazing territories, largely Christian local government areas are being targeted and destroyed,” Brown said.