The following was written by ASFL blog team member Osoteku Demilade

While the world is enthralled with the migrant crisis in Europe, the number of homeless people displaced  in Nigeria is already nearing those from the Nigerian Civil war.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre revealed that as of April 2015, over 1.5 million people have been forced to leave their homes in Nigeria. This figure is comprised of people displaced as a result of terrorist attacks by the Islamist armed group Boko Haram in north-eastern Nigeria, the government-led counterinsurgency operations against the group, ongoing inter-communal clashes and natural hazard-induced disasters.

Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend.

Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria

By  September 2015, the number of homeless people as a result of the Boko Haram related operations has increased to over 2.1 million; the highest number of internally displaced persons in the world as revealed by the latest International Organization for Migration Report.
The deadly Nigerian Civil War of 1967 – 1970, the greatest humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s history, claimed thousands of life and made about 1-3 million civilians homeless. The Boko Haram insurgency although more subtle as it doesn’t operate as a full scale war, has already made over 2.1 million people homeless and has killed people in their thousands.

The rising number of internally displaced persons has been an after effect of several years of neglect and insensitivity of the government to the rising insurgency that has claimed the lives of many persons in the Nigerian North Eastern region. The dastard acts have been perpetuated by members of the Boko Haram religious sect who recently changed their name to Islamic State in West Africa. The Boko haram sect, who initially stated that they were against Western education, has also gone ahead to bomb mosques, churches, markets and bus terminals.
The number of internally displaced persons and consequently homeless persons in Nigeria has risen to alarming rates as this statistics represents the highest number of homeless people on the continent. The scourge of internally displaced persons means that people who once had their dignity intact albeit in terrifying economic conditions, now no longer have homes they can call their own. They only fulfil their fundamental need of shelter in unpleasant facilities at the IDP camps.

While the efforts by various humanitarian aid agencies like the Red Cross International, International Rescue Commission as well as the United Nation Humanitarian Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) has been felt, more can still be done. More importantly is the responsibility of indigenous Non-Governmental Agencies and humanitarian agencies from across Africa in seeing to the welfare of the IDPs.
In a bid to reduce the number of IDPs, the government of Nigeria needs to be on her toes. The intelligence operations of the military need to step up and should be more aggressive to kill insurgency dead within the shortest possible time.

2.1 million Internally Displaced persons represent gross violations of the dignity of persons that the Nigerian president and public office holders swore on oath to protect under the Nigerian Constitution. This number is a gross violation of the right to life, dignity and security of persons as guaranteed by the United National Declaration of Human Rights Document.A man’s home is his castle. What can a country achieve without the presence of the simplest existence of security?

A lot of work needs to be done to ensure that a concerted regional effort is made to tackle the insurgency. Boko Haram is no longer a Nigerian problem neither is it a problem of only the North Eastern region. The sect has had attacks in neighbouring countries of Chad, Niger Republic and Cameroon in addition to the fact that they have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Although a regional military coalition of about 8,700 military personnel exists from the four affected countries, victory is not only in the numbers but in the skills possessed by these soldiers.
There is also a need for Pan-African knowledge exchange in tackling terrorism and insurgency. While Boko Haram terrorizes West Africa, Al-Shabab disturbs the peace in East Africa, and the Islamic State rains similar havoc in Northern Africa. There is now an urgent need for intelligence sharing among the government and military of the affected regions with excellent coordination by the African Union.

The spate of increase in the number of internally displaced persons and homeless in Nigeria particularly, and other terrorism hotbeds and war torn parts of Africa has reached the depths; African governments must live up to their responsibility of protecting the ‘right to life’ and individual liberty of their citizens.

To prevent the drowning in the Mediterranean and further sorry sights on the shores of Europe, Nigeria must resettle her homeless. Charity begins at home.