By EDITH NWAPI

Benue has remained a major flashpoint for internal displacement in Nigeria, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said.

The Executive Secretary of the commission, Dr Tony Ojukwu SAN, said this in his speech at the presentation of the Internally Displaced Persons( IDPs ) dashboard of January and February in Abuja.

Ojukwu was represented by Ms Rabi Anwar, director, legal services in the commission.

” The data for the two reporting months show a persistent and growing protection crisis.

” Our Human Rights Monitors reached a total of 10,884 Internally Displaced Persons and 3,754

Households.

” We recorded 6,003 children, this represents 36 per cent of the total IDP population.

” In terms of regional impact, Benue, with 4,178 IDPs, and Borno, with 3,411 IDPs, recorded the highest populations of displaced persons reached.

“The drivers behind these numbers remain

the stark insecurity in these states” he said.

He said there have been repeated attacks on farming communities in Benue.

Ojukwu noted further the repeated rural attacks by insurgencies in Borno, triggering population movement and restricted access to farming.

He said the commission documented 527 Asylum Seekers, mainly in Taraba and Borno.

Ojukwu said 1, 159 Refugees were recorded with Taraba and Borno hosting the most documented refugee households.

He said 2,119 Returnees were documented, out of which 95 per cent were children.

” Regarding human rights incidents and protection gaps, the protection data presents a bleak scenario of the protection risks.

” A total of over 5,048 human rights cases were documented across multiple thematic areas ” he said.

The most prevalent violations according to Ojukwu continues to be access to education and health, socio-economic rights (Food and Shelter), freedom of movement, gender based violence, child protection, safety and security.

He said 69 monitoring visits were made to detention centres in police and military facilities.

” Major concerns include prolonged detention, lack of feeding, and poor sanitation in detention facilities,

particularly in Taraba and Benue” he said.

He added that 502 community outreach

sessions, was conducted reaching 9,185 individuals with vital information on human rights, GBV prevention, child protection, and reporting mechanisms.

He noted that Cross River, Benue, Katsina, and Adamawa accounted for more than half of all beneficiaries, reflecting targeted engagement in high-risk .

Dr Benedict Agu, co-ordinator of the project presented the infographic report.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event was organised by NHRC, in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

NAN reports further that the dashboard is a platform for documenting, analysing, and responding to the human rights realities of IDPs, Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and returnees .

The 11 project states are Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Taraba, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara. (NAN)

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