Yobe State is the most insecure of the six states in the North-East, the latest report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with Oxfam Nigeria has said.
According to the report, Adamawa State is the most secure among the states in the region, adding that men were the most unsafe individuals in the area as they were often killed when insurgents attacked their communities.
The six states in Nigeria’s North-East include Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe.
The Livelihoods and Economic Recovery Assessment 2016 report, which was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja, revealed several key findings after an assessment that was conducted by Oxfam Nigeria on behalf of UNDP in the four states of Borno, Adamawa, Gombe, Yobe, eight local government areas, 24 wards.
No fewer than 3,258 households were sampled.
Additional revelations in the report showed that the residents in some of the states were still feeling insecure despite the presence of the Nigerian Armed Forces in the region.
Under its Safety and Social Cohesion section, the UNDP, in its report, said, “Indicators used to measure the level of security were based on the perception of insecurity of the populace surveyed. The assessment indicated that Yobe State was viewed as the most insecure and Adamawa State as the most secure.
“Women recorded a lower percentage of insecurity distress when compared to men. This trend illustrates that men might feel more unsafe in the LGAs due to the fact that they are the ones most often killed when insurgents attack their communities.”
The UNDP also noted that individuals with illnesses such as asthma, diabetes, cancer, liver cirrhosis, HIV, tuberculosis and others, were present in 23 per cent of the households assessed.
It said, “The relatively high rates of chronically ill persons in households suggest a potentially high dependency on the productive population, thereby increasing the already high dependency ratio in the area.”
The insecurity situation in Nigeria’s North-East, perpetuated by the insurgency group, Boko Haram, had progressively destabilised the region.
According to the UNDP’s Resident Representative and Country Director, Lamin Beyai, the impact of the conflict in the region over the last few years had resulted in a protracted humanitarian crisis which led to numerous deaths as well as the mass displacement of an estimated 2,241,484 individuals and 334,608 households.
He stated that the objective of the assessment was to gain a systematic and representative information of the socio-economic situation of the local population, of returnees and internally displaced persons settled with host communities and to present a comparative analysis between the affected populations in Adamawa, Borno, Gombe and Yobe states.
“Purposive-random multi-stage sampling in the four states was used to create a representative sample of the affected population,” he added. – Punch.
