Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
The European Union has earmarked €123 million (about N54 billion) to provide basic services for communities destroyed or affected by Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State.
EU envoy to Nigeria and head of Cooperation, Kurl Cornelis, disclosed at the official launch of the EU support programme, in Maiduguri, on Tuesday, that the fund was for the nine EU-funded projects for response recovery of destroyed communities and building of resilence of affected persons in the area.
“The European Union recognises the severity of the situation and enormity of the challenges face by the people of the northeast, especially Borno State,” Cornelis said at the launch.
He noted that there were no quick fixes in the deplorable social services in the northeast caused by the violence. He said the EU would work closely with other relevant agencies to address the challenge so as not to allow occurrence of huge humanitarian crisis in the post insurgency era.
The envoy said the EU was aware that attacks by Boko Haram were still on, but assured that the union would cooperate with the Nigerian authority to provide the basic services.
“I identified some of the intervention areas which include health, nutrition, education, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) as well as electricity.
“The projects aim to build resilence for enhanced food/nutrition, security of internally displaced persons (IDPs), host communities and returnees, and contributing to the stabilization and management of conflict in Nigeria’s northeast States particularly Borno State,” he said.
Some of the international governmental and non governmental organisations selected for the projects according to Cornelis include Action Against Hunger, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Rescue Committee (IRC), Disaster Water Recovery, Mercy Corps, Nowergian Refugee Council (NRC), United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and Department for International Development (DFID).