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IMPACT OF INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT DUE TO INSURGENCY ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

One of the significant symptoms of human insecurity crises is internally displaced persons. As opined by the United Nations Guiding Principles, these are ‘persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border’ (Oladeji, 2015, p. 44). Internally displaced persons receive little or no attention from the government of their habitual residence. These persons leave their comfort for a life of uncertainty elsewhere which triggers insecurity from within them coupled with the minimal attention received from government thereby exposing these people to economic threats, health threats, personal threats, political threats, environmental threats and community threats. Great concerns have been generated by both local and international agencies due to the poor living conditions of these persons which in turn, leads to poor sanitations therefore raise in sicknesses and diseases (Emmanuelar, 2015).

Importantly, internally displaced persons become dependent on others for basic amenities either on the host community or external intervention (Brookings, 2008). With all these, internally displaced persons’ crises make it very difficult for the government to actualize the Millennium Sustainable Goals (Osagioduwa & Oluwakorede, 2016). Human displacement remains one of the most significant humanitarian challenges facing the world. Of the 33.3 million internally displaced persons in the world (exclusive of the development-induced displacement), 15 million internally displaced persons can be found in Africa, with an increase of 7.5% between 2013 and 2014 and Nigeria hosting over 3.300,000 IDPs (Osagioduwa & Oluwakorede, 2016, p. 194). The issue of human displacement in Africa involves more of internally displaced persons than refugees (United Nations Human Committee on Rights [UNHCR], 2012). This is due to the fact that after the Cold War, armed conflict took on a new dimension to include wars between non-state actors within the state and the sovereign state unlike the pre-Cold War era which saw armed conflict as conflict between sovereign states (Emmanuelar, 2015). As the number of internally displaced persons continue to increase, attempts at mitigating this crisis becomes more challenging for troubled countries. Notably, global efforts at managing displacement have concentrated more on refugees than internally displaced persons, yet the internally displaced person’s crisis equally constitutes a challenge to global civilization (Osagioduwa & Oluwakorede, 2016).

The forced displacement of civilians from their homes has been on the increase in the recent past. By virtue of lost social and economic ties, displaced persons suffer undesirable physical and psychological hardship. Over the years, thousands of people worldwide have fled their homes and abandoned their means of livelihood by virtue of eruption of violence or other forms of threats. The internally displaced people are people who have fled their homes because of violent conflict and persecution arising from insurgency, communal clashes, natural disasters, inter-ethnic conflict etc. There are two categories of such people: those who flee to foreign countries to seek refuge (the refugees) and those who remain within their national borders (the internally displaced persons). They are internally displaced in the sense that they remain within Nigerian borders. According to IDMC‟s estimate there are almost 2,152,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Nigeria as of 31 December 2015 (IDMC 2016). IDMC reports that the figure is based on an assessment conducted from November to December 2015 by the International Organization for Migrations (IOM) and Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) team in 207 Local Government Areas (LGA) covering 13 States of Northern Nigeria: Abuja (13,481 IDPs); Adamawa (136,010); Bauchi (70,078); Benue (85,393); Borno (1,434,149); Gombe (25,332); Kaduna (36,976); Kano (9,331); Nasarawa (37,553); Plateau (77,317); Taraba (50,227); Yobe (131,203); and Zamfara (IDMC 2015).

1.2   STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS

The worrisome situation of internally displaced persons is exacerbated by the poor condition of living and hardship that they are exposed to. Over 1.5 million displaced persons are kept in overcrowded school, empty government buildings used as camps across northern regions while others run to other communities/towns to seek refuge. These camps are characterized by inadequate basic amenities and are supervised by the National Emergency Management Agency (Ventures Africa, 2015). Majority of Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria are women and children with over 50% of the total IDPs. According to IDMC (Internally Displaced Monitoring Centre) 2015 report, there are almost 2,152,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Nigeria composed of 53 % women and 47% men. More than 56% of the total IDP populations are children of which more than half are about the age of 5 years, while 42% are adults. 92% of IDPs were displaced by the insurgency (Biola 2016). These vulnerable categories (women and children) suffer from different problems such as poverty, psychological trauma, malnutrition, sickness, insecurity in the camps, and lack of access to education etc.

1.3   RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The broad objective of this study is to examine the impact of internal displacement due to insurgency on women and children in Nigeria.  The study will examine;

1. Cases of Violence-Induced Internal Displacement in Nigeria

2.  Internal Displacement and Forced Migration

3.  Negative Impacts of Displacement on Women and Children

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions will guide the study

1.  Cases of Violence-Induced Internal Displacement in Nigeria

2.  Internal Displacement and Forced Migration

3.  Negative Impacts of Displacement on Women and Children

1.5  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Psychological research are conducted to benefit humanity, similarly this study is significant in the following:

1.  The findings of this research would provide useful information to psychological centers, and clinical psychologist who seeks to offer therapeutic services to help victims of Boko Haram to deal with the traumatic experiences.

2.  This study will provide useful literature for further researchers who will conduct related research in the future.

3.  Nongovernmental organizations also would benefit from this study even as they worked with IDPs. The research will help the NGO to know to help those who suffer psychologically as a result of what they experienced that necessitate displacement from their homes.

4.  This study will provide useful information to the general public. It will provide useful educational materials in the libraries.

1.6    METHODOLOGY

Data were gathered from both primary and secondary sources the nature of information gathered included both qualitative and quantitative sources of data. The qualitative source of data consisted of the descriptive aspect of the study and the quantitative source of data entailed the use of figures primarily for observing trends of the level and the rate of human displacement internally at the national, regional as well as global levels. Both primary and secondary data were utilized to enhance the quality of the study. The data analysis adopted was the textual analysis. The textual analysis aids the researcher to analyze the content of communication instead of the formation of the content. It as well aided the use of narratives and historical documentations of the crisis of internally displaced person’s crisis to understand the ideas which were expressed in written words.

1.6   DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

Internal displacement / Internally Displaced Persons

Internally displaced persons are "persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.

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