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Assessment Of Health Need For Internally Displaced Persons
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The definition of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) most commonly used comes from the United Nations (UN) guiding principles on internal displacement. The guiding principles define IDPs as “persons or group of persons who have been forced or obligated to flee or leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a situation of generalized violence, violation of human rights, or natural or man-made disasters and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border. They are often referred to as “refugees†although they do not fall within the current legal definition of refugees (International Committee for the Red Cross, 2010). Internal displacement affecting about 25 million people worldwide has become increasingly recognized as one of the most tragic phenomena of the contemporary world. Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced due to conflict every year globally (UNHCR, 2013). Forced to flee from their homes in search of protection, some are able to find refuge with families and friends, but some are crowded into camps where they become further violent, mental stress and disease (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2013).
The Norwegian refugee council (NRC) describes the ripple effect of Boko Haram’s violence in a recent briefing in which it has identified three emerging patterns of displacement. The first is of internally displaced (IDPs) fleeing to the south of the country in the footsteps of economic migrants, the second is of people fleeing from rural to urban areas within their states and the third if of secondary displacement of both IDPs and host communities who move once again when their resources have been depleted (NRC, 2014).
Since 2011, the population of the north eastern Nigerian states have been affected by the insurgency between Boko Haram and governmental forces. The government declared a state of emergency (SOE) on 14th may, 2013 in three north eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa (UNICEF, 2015). Insurgent attacks by Islamic Boko Haram militants increased dramatically from mid-2014 Rushing, and Joe, 2014).
After its founding in 2002, Boko Haram’s increasing radicalization led to violent uprising in July 2009 in which its leader Mohammed Yusuf was summarily executed. Its expected resurgence, following a mass prison break in September, 2010 was accompanied by increasingly sophisticated attacks. Since the current insurgency started in 2009, it has killed 20,000 and displaced 2.3 million from their homes Tiffen, 2009). This had resulted in to serious psychosocial problem for IDPs.
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