Acting President Yemi Osinbajo arrives Maiduguri today to begin the flag-off of the federal government’s distribution of 30,000 metric tonnes (1,032 trucks) of cereal directly to affected persons in the Northeastern states of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe.
This special relief intervention, according to an advisory from the National Emergency Management Agency ( NEMA), has the objective of highlighting the strategies that would be adopted for distribution of relief materials approved by the federal government for displaced persons in the North East in accordance with the humanitarian principles.
It will also serve as litmus test for full cycle of intervention, adapting world best practices while considering the country’s local peculiarities, exhibiting the best of transparency, accountability and in full consideration of the protection and integrity of the affected persons.
Each household beneficiary would be issued with a voucher, which is redeemed at the receipt of the household allocation of the food basket. It also involves taking the materials to the doorsteps of the affected persons.
The distribution, which is based on Dry ration calculations of 6 persons per household and food ration per individual for 30days at 280grams x30/1000k = 8.4 kg times individual requirement per household, is 50.4 kg.
Relief intervention will be also airlifted for areas that have inaccessible roads or security threat by the Nigeria Air force.
The Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency, Engr. Mustapha Maihaja, said adequate measures have been put in place to ensure that the distribution was done in a transparent manner for optimal accomplishment of task and operational objectives.
Osinbajo is in Maiduguri 24 hours after an onslaught by insurgent group, Boko Haram, was put under by security forces.
Reuters reports that suspected Boko Haram fighters attacked the city on Wednesday, the Islamist militant group’s most serious assault on the regional capital in a year and a half.
Reuters reports further: The raid comes six months President Muhammadu Buhari said Boko Haram had “technically” been defeated by a military campaign that had pushed many jihadists deep into the remote Sambisa forest, near the border with Cameroon.
Aid workers and Reuters witnesses reported explosions and heavy gunfire for at least 45 minutes in the southeastern and southwestern outskirts of the city. Thousands of civilians fled the fighting, according to Reuters witnesses.
Nigeria’s military said it had contained the attack.
“The situation in Maiduguri is under control,” it said in a statement, urging the city’s inhabitants not to panic.
Maiduguri in Borno state has been the epicenter of the eight-year fight against Boko Haram but has been relatively free of violence since the beginning of 2016, barring sporadic suicide bombs on its outskirts.
Fighter jets roared overhead as soldiers and police sped toward the scene, the Reuters witnesses said. Three children were hit by bullets, one witness said.
More than 20,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram’s campaign to establish a mediaeval caliphate in the Lake Chad basin. A further 2.7 million have been displaced, creating one of the world’s largest humanitarian emergencies.
Despite the military’s success in liberating cities and towns, much of Borno remains off-limits, hampering efforts to deliver food aid to nearly 1.5 million people believed to be on the brink of famine.