The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), on Monday advocated adequate protection and recognition for humanitarian workers worldwide.
Alhaji Mustapha Maihaja, the Director-General of the agency, made the call in Abuja, in an address at a symposium to commemorate the 2019 World Humanitarian Day.
Maihaja regretted that attacks on humanitarian workers had been on the increase, saying that four NEMA staff were attacked in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), camp in Yola, while providing support in 2015.
“But John Iliya, another NEMA staff, was not so lucky as he was killed by Boko Haram insurgents on Aug. 8, 2018 in the line of duty in Borno.
“Similarly, in April 2019, four staff of the agency on humanitarian service in community affected by flood in Rivers were kidnapped and were in captivity for seven days before they were rescued.
“Recently, the emergency rescue equipment of the agency in Central Business Area, Abuja was razed down in another attack targeted at NEMA personnel and facilities,” Maihaja said.
The director-general, however, urged humanitarian workers not to be scared by the risk in the course of offering service.
He also advised them to remain focused, united and resolute in the spirit of humanity.
“It is a fact that humanitarian workers globally are exposed to lots of risks. Sometimes, they are faced with extreme threats that affect their survival, especially in disaster situations such as violent conflicts,’’ he pointed out.
He recalled the high profile incidence of Sept. 18, 1961, involving Mr Dag Hammarskjold who was the Secretary-General of UN and recent abductions and murders of aid workers in Nigeria,
“Humanitarian workers deserve recognition as well as adequate protection,’’ Maihaja asserted.
He described the theme of the 2019 World Humanitarian Day, “Women Humanitarian’’, as apt.
“The theme significantly highlights the unique perspective of the special role of women in humanitarian services,” he dclared.
The UN General Assembly in 2008 set aside August 19 of every year as the World Humanitarian Day to commemorate the 2003 terrorists attack in Iraq.
Twenty-two persons lost their lives in the incident, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Iraq, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello.
