By Inusa Ndahi, Maiduguri
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre and the Presidential Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation, also known as Dangote Committee, have delivered tons of food items, household goods and building materials to the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, and victims of flood disaster in Borno State.
Representative of the Saudi aid agency in Nigeria, Al-Yuosuf Abdulkarim, while handing over the relief materials at El-Miskin IDPs camp in Maiduguri on Tuesday, said it was a support for the poor.
He said, “This is a support for the poor people affected by the violence and flood in Borno State.”
He said that this was not the first time the Salman Foundation is giving out donations to victims of insurgency in the state, as it has done it severely in the past.
Also, the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Alhaji Mustapha Ahmed, said that the relief items donated by Saudi and Dangote Committee, were meant to support those affected by both the insurgency and the flood disaster in Borno.
He added, “The relief items are meant to support Nigerians, especially the people of the North East affected by both insurgency as well as those impacted by the 2022 flood disaster in Borno State.”
He said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and her people remain Nigeria’s allies due to their empathy for Nigerians during crisis period.
He added that 16,000 food baskets were among the donations to cater for 16,000 households in Borno. Others include building materials, household needs, food items, among others.
The governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, thanked King Salman Humanitarian and Relief Centre and the Presidential Committee for their support.
He said that the relief came at the right time, assuring that the items would be distributed equitably.
Zulum added that it was the second time King Salman Relief Centre is giving such intervention following the first support in 2018.
He warned state officials who will be involved in the distribution of the relief to the people against diversion.
He said, “We will not allow unequal distributions of these relief under my watch.”
About 1.8 million people out of the estimated three million displaced persons in the 13-year-old Boko Haram violence are from Borno State, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
