The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Wednesday in Abuja commended the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for its support toward strengthening disaster management in Nigeria.
NEMA Director-General, Muhammed Sidi, on Wednesday in Abuja when USAID made a donation of $37 million to support people affected by the insurgency in the North-East.
Mr Jeremy Konyndyk, the Director of Foreign Disaster Assistance, led a USAID team on a visit to NEMA to make the donation.
Sidi said that the Federal Government had done a lot to respond to the humanitarian consequences in the North-East and would continue to collaborate with UN agencies in that area.
Sidi said that NEMA would like to collaborate with USAID in the rehabilitation of the people, reconstruction of their communities and infrastructure to ensure full recovery.
“We look forward to further collaboration with USAID in the areas of provision of psychosocial support to the traumatised people, reconciliation and peace building.
“Provision of assistance to the youths in the form of skill acquisition, training and development of Nigerian Incident Management System will be appreciated.’’
He said that the assistance was coming at a time Nigeria needed it the most.
Earlier, Konyndyk said that the $37 million additional humanitarian assistance was to support those in the Lake Chad Basin region and people affected by Boko Haram violence in the North-East.
According to him, U.S. Government has supported Nigeria with $318 million, making it the largest humanitarian donor to Nigeria.
“I am here today with my colleagues to offer assistance after our visit to the North-East to assess the situation of the IDPs and understand better the crisis by Boko Haram.
“It is a very difficult situation and we are quite concerned and sad by the condition we saw; the U.S. Government is very focused on the Boko Haram crisis.
“We are announcing today an additional 37 million dollars in humanitarian assistance to support those across the Lake Chad Basin region, most of all Nigerians affected by the Boko Haram violence.
Konyndyk said that the donation won’t be given to NEMA but to an international NGO and UN to distribute food, water, shelter, give service to address acute hygiene and nutrition needs.
He, however, said that the food assistance would also be delivered to conflict affected communities in the Diffa region of Niger and people who fled their homes in Bosso.
“In addition to humanitarian funding, USAID provides targeted assistance that seeks to reduce extreme poverty and improve the quality of life for Nigeria’s most vulnerable communities,’’ he said.
