Boko Haram Insurgency: Belgian gov’t approves €5 million to rebuild North-East region

The Kingdom of Belgium has approved €5 million to rebuild the North-East region in the country ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency.

This according to the Belgian government is part of efforts to ameliorate the sufferings of the people in the region.

The Ambassador of Belgium to Nigeria, Daniel Bertrand communicated the position of the Belgian government yesterday in Abuja, during a courtesy visit to the managing director and chief executive officer of North-East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Alkali.

Alkali lamented that due to the activities of insurgency in the region, institutions in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states were paralyzed and destroyed during the first seven years of the insurgency.

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He appealed to the Belgian government to intervene in education, agriculture to facilitate the return of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) back to their villages.

He said: “Belgium as part of the EU is one of the largest contributors to salvage the humanitarian crisis in the North-East when the humanitarian crisis was handed over to us.

“During that time people were still in camp, but now they are returning to their original settlement, definitely they are going to meet another crisis in terms of how they will settle down.”

Earlier, Ambassador Bertrand said the country was also ready to assist the Nigerian authorities in other areas aside from humanitarian assistance.

The envoy said that his country is deeply involved in humanitarian assistance in the North-East part of the country.

“I personally visited Borno State twice to better understand the organisation and to know what we can do together because Belgium has a very strong interest in developing its bilateral relationship with Nigeria in business, commerce, and human relationship.

“We are not indifferent to what is happening in the North-East part of the country especially from the humanitarian point of view, we are at the disposal of the Nigerian authorities to do better.

“I think is more or less, €5 million per year. Regarding other areas where we can assist, it depends on the request of the Nigerian authorities,” Bertrand said.

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