UN urges FG to clean-up recovered towns

The places must also be examined to ensure that landmines are not buried and endangered the lives of the returnees," Toure said

Boko Haram: UN urges FG to clean-up recovered towns
(Today)

The UN on Thursday urged the Federal Government to clean up the communities liberated from Boko Haram to make them safe for the displaced persons to return to. UN Resident Coordinator, Dr Daouda Toure, made the appeal in Gombe at the screening of 2,000 Boko Haram victims from Adamawa, Borno and Yobe for a one-year skills acquisition programme.

Toure said many of the recovered communities had been contaminated with the rubbish left behind by the activities of Boko Haram and therefore, were unsafe to return to.

"We must clean the North East, especially the places that are crisis-ridden of the rubbish and the carcasses of the corpses of the people that litter such places. Their wells that have been contaminated by all these corpses must be cleaned up or completely sealed up and other means of water provided.

"The places must also be examined to ensure that landmines are not buried and endangered the lives of the returnees," Toure said. Toure, who was represented by the Conflict Prevention and Peace Building Analyst, Mr Matthew Alao, explained that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were eager to return.

The UN official said most of them had gory tales of their experience in strange lands and would like to return home, especially as the rains were setting in. He said cleaning up the areas could pose a daunting task especially, as most houses in places like Bama and Gwoza were completely razed down and needed to be rebuilt.

He, however, pledged the UN support in cleaning up the areas, saying the organisation has special interest in the exercise and was already carrying out several early recovery programmes. "If we are to really work we must move ahead immediately but I’m not sure the government is moving at the pace of the people.

"The people want to return immediately and you can also understand why they want to return; they have been in strange lands for sometimes. Some of them are already coming back and most of the people coming back are giving sad stories of their experience in the neighbouring countries”, he said.

According to him, "home is home; they want to come home but how do we move ahead to ensure that the liberated areas are cleaned up? This is very critical. If you don’t clean up the communities and you allow the IDPs to return there, you are endangering their lives in terms of epidemics.

"You are also endangering their lives in terms of even being killed by landmines because landmines may be there that can blow anybody off. So the situation must be right, must be conducive for the people to return home and this has to be led by the government.”

Toure also said it was paramount for the military to be actively involved in the clean up, adding that they could be used in carrying out some physical reconstructions. "As soon as they military liberate an area, they should also clean the area and make the place safe for the people to come in. The military must be involved; they must buy into it and adequate fund should be provided so that we can move forward.

"Even the military can be used to carry out some physical construction of public facilities damaged by Boko Haram”, he said.