Humanitarian workers implicated in Adamawa IDPs’ sexual harrasment cases

Over 40 cases of Gender Based Violence and Sexual Exploitation Abuses were recorded in the 26 Internally Displaced Persons’ camps in Adamawa State, an official of the Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency disclosed to Arewa According.

The senior official who spoke to Arewa According on condition of anonymity because he is not permitted to talk to the media, revealed that there four formal and 22 informal IDP camps in Adamawa State.

He noted that the formal camps are Malkohi, in the Yola South Local Government Area, the National Youth Service Corps camp in Girei Local Government, the Fufore camp in Fufore Local Government Area and the Damare camp in Yola – South Local Government Area.

The ASEMA official pointed out that the informal camps were created by the IDPs themselves, but that government still provides them with foodstuffs, medical services, and other essential needs that can help them survive in the camp.

According to the official, who made documents available to Arewa According, it noted that the ASEMA record shows that in August 2021, no less than 297 suspects were convicted for sexual exploitation abuses and gender based violence out of the 774 perpetrators facing trials in the different courts.

He pointed out that among those convicted, “some of them committed the unholy act within IDPs camps across the state.”

The Arewa According source stressed, “Some staff of the various humanitarian agencies were also among those who committed some of these unholy and unGodly act.

“We have reports of sex for food cases which are from some of the different humanitarian organisations.

It is not a secret again,” he said.

He disclosed further that the four formal IDPs camps host no fewer than 5,000 people.

When the acting head of ASEMA Mrs. Heidi Sunday Edgar was contacted by our correspondent around 8 am on Wednesday to speak on the issue, she said, “I’m in a Zoom meeting now, so we can not talk, may be later.”

Our correspondent pressed further around 9:47am the same day by forwarding to  her WhatsApp platform, similar questions bordering on the same issue,  followed with another round of phone calls at 10:18 am, but she did not pick up the second call nor respond to the chat as at press time.

The Gombe experience

Meanwhile, in Gombe, a well-known IDP, Isa Maina, disclosed that the communal living style of IDPs in the state has made reports of rape difficult, as everyone knows the other neighbour.

Arewa According investigations reveal that the state does not have Internally Displaced Persons camps. Rather, such indigent persons are scattered among  residents who also live within the various communities.

Our correspondent reports that these communities include areas around the Akko bye-pass Wuro She, Wuro Juli, Nanyi nawa, and reservoir, among others.

The IDPs it was further learnt are majorly from Borno, Yobe, and  Adamawa states.

Maina said, “We used to have such cases reported in the early years of our settlement, but that is no longer the case.

“Rape is no longer recorded within our settlement, maybe in the past, but it is no longer the case.”

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of Gombe State Police command, ASP Buhari Abdullahi, explained that the mode of living has made rape difficult, adding, “I don’t have such statistics on rape around them (IDPs) now maybe because of the communal living.”

Arewa According recalls that the Deputy Governor of Gombe State, Dr Manassah Jatau, had on August 22, 2022, during the FG’s digitised conditional cash transfer of N20,000 to 2100 women and 900 youths in the state pointed out the reasons why the state doesn’t have IDP camps.

While emphasising the need to curb stigmatisation,

he noted that it was in the bid to ensure they (IDPs) stayed within the communities that the government usually ensured that rapidly integrated without the feeling of being unwanted.

Jatau said, “IDPs give the stigma to those in the camps. Of course, we know how stigmatisation has been a hindrance for the recovery of diseases, and by extension, slow ‘recovery’ of the victims gathered in IDPs.

“IDPs make it difficult for the full integration of these victims since IDPs are seen as isolated from the rest of the society.

“In extreme cases, victims in IDPs are out rightly rejected by the society just like people from correctional centres are rejected.

“With this, the tendency to go back to the ‘old way of life is high.”