By Aluta News
Mar. 13, 2022
The Red Cross Society of Nigeria on Sunday gave cash assistance to 800 Internally Displaced Persons(IDPs) affected by insecurity in Zamfara.
The Zamfara Branch Secretary of the Society, Mr Ibrahim Garba, said at the flagging off of the disbursement in Gusau, that the assisstance was meant to alleviate the suffering of the IDPs affected by activities of bandits.
“The cash assistance is to support the victims of banditry activities in three most affected Local Government Areas (LGAs).
“The affected LGAs include Gusau, Maru, and Bakura,” Garba said.
According to him, bandits denied the victims, mostly farmers, access to their farmlands in their respective communities.
The assistance, he explained, is part of the Red Cross humanitarian support that would provide relief for them to buy some food items.
“Many of the victims have been devastated; no jobs, no food and farming which is their source of livelihood had been denied.
“Most of them do not work on the farmlands to produce what they would eat as a result of the insecurity,” he said.
He disclosed that 700 beneficiaries including aged persons, IDPs, widows, and orphans received N30,500 each.
Garba further said that 100 others including pregnant women and nursing mothers had received N10,000 each.
He said that the category would continue to receive the same amount for 10 months.
The secretary advised the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the assistance given to improve their livelihood.
Some of the beneficiaries lauded the gesture, saying it would relieve them of the hardship they had been going through to support their families.
Hadiza Usman, a widow who lost her husband and two children to the bandits, said she was joyful.
Usman said she would use the amount to establish a petty business to sustain her three surviving kids.
A five-month pregnant woman, Rahma Suleiman, 34, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that her husband had been abducted since November 2021.
According to her, since then, there has not been any information about his whereabout.
Suleiman said the amount would help her “journey to safe delivery” and beyond.
“As they told us, I will continue to receive this amount for 10 months.
“I am most grateful. This is a huge relief for me and my two young kids,” she said.
NAN