Zamfara has 34,000 IDP households – Commissioner

Zamfara has 34,000 heads of households who are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Hajiya Fa’ika Ahmad, the state’s Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, made the disclosure in Abuja on Wednesday.

Declaring open a four-day workshop for review of the state’s Social Protection Policy (SPP) implementation framework, Hajiya Ahmad said there were also 180,000 women and children who are IDPs in the state.

She blamed the large figures on worsening insecurity in the state and said that from available data, it was clear that the state was in need of humanitarian and social protection support.

“The present administration in the state is committed to ensuring effective humanitarian support to vulnerable groups, especially the IDPs.

“Signing of the SPP indicates that the state has the political will to effectively execute social protection programmes.

“We will ensure effective implementation of the policy for the benefit of the state,’’ the Commissioner said.

The workshop was organised by the Save the Children International (SCI) an NGO supported by the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO).

Hajiya Ahmad commended SCI for various supports it had been giving to Zamfara and assured that the review of the SPP implementation framework would help the state to implement various social protection programmes.

Earlier, the SCI-CDGP project Team Lead for Zamfara and Kaduna States, Mr Muhammad Langaya, said the workshop was aimed at strengthening social protection system in the state.

He commended Zamfara for signing the policy and for upgrading the Directorate of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management to a ministry.

Langaya said the policy would play a vital role in reducing vulnerability and level of poverty in the state.

He said the SCI spent eight years implementing the CDGP project in Zamfara funded by FCDO.

Thirty participants drawn from Zamfara civil service, officials of SCI, those of Civil Society Organisations and the media are participating at the workshop.