Refugee crisis in Sambisa will be bad – Ndume

Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South) yesterday said the humanitarian crisis in Sambisa forest would be worse than that of Bama whenever it’s liberated.

Hosting the Federal Commissioner for the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) Sadiya Umar Farouq, Ndume said the humanitarian crisis in Bama was just a tip of the iceberg.

“I am an IDP because I have not been able to go to my village or town for the past three years. I visited Gwoza only once and I had to use a helicopter from Yola Air Force Headquarters to go and see our people. There are people there now trapped and it is not only in Gwoza; the 22 Local Government Areas are facing the same plight.

“Nobody knows what they are facing because nobody goes there to see it. People in the accessible places are doing fine. Those Chibok girls that were released, 21 of them were released from Sambisa and that is the headquarters. They moved them from Sambisa and drop them somewhere.

“They spent 40 days without eating and that was because there was no food. One of them was telling me that some of them, the men were wearing only underwear because there was even no clothing to cover them, “he said.

Ndume added that, “The situation now is getting so much out of hand that you (NRC) need to come in as quickly as possible before these areas are opened. If these areas are opened without you going in first, this country will face serious embarrassment. What you have seen coming out of Bama is just a tip of the iceberg.” In her remarks, the federal commissioner for NCFRMI, Sadiya Umar Farouq said only N775million has been released by the federal government out of the N4billion budgeted for the commission this year. She said the resettlement of the IDPs was important to her but that the poor release of funds was hindering the discharge of the commission’s responsibilities.