Borno IDPs get UN cash assistance

The United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Maiduguri said on Sunday that many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state had benefited from its different cash support programme aimed at improving their living condition.


Mr Victor Lahar, the Head of the Maiduguri Sub-office of the organisation, stated this in Maiduguri.

Lahar said that the cash programme would enable the IDPs to chose the kind of food they wanted to cook as well as allow them to buy some basic needs of life.

``It is a fact that IDPs in Maiduguri and surrounding communities have started benefiting from different cash transfer programmes supported by the UN humanitarian Community.

``The cash programme gives them the leeway to choose food items they want on their own, it also gives them some allowance to buy tooth paste, soap and other basic things to improve their living conditions,'' he said.

Lahar, however, declined to give the exact number of the IDPs that had benefited from the programme.

Lahar said that the UN also had another cash programme called the Bouncing Back Support which was aimed at making IDPs self reliant after returning home.

``The Bouncing Back Support is when the security improves when people are returning home; it is also called recovery assistance.

``It is a kind of support that makes the IDPs recover from their past by making them self reliant,'' he said.

About 200,000 IDPs who were victims of the Boko Haram terrorism are currently taking shelter in different camps in the state.