ABSTRACT
This paper studies the negative impacts of Boko Haram insurgency on women and children in Malkoihi Yola South, Adamawa State Nigeria. Indeed, Boko Haram has affected the lives of the general populace in Malkoihi Yola South, Adamawa State Nigeria, precisely women and children, by turning the women to widows and children to orphans, the negative events of the sect groups have continually coursing a serious damage to the lives and properties of the peoples in the Malkoihi Yola South, Adamawa State region. The researcher used the Secondary source in acquiring the appropriate data. The study found that this set of individuals and their negative activities have affected the lives and properties of women and children. It is noted that many women have turned to widows and children to orphans. In view of this, the paper recommends that the government should intervene to provide the affected women and children with some empowerment programs. It should also provide a good shelter to those that lost their husbands and residents, the government, traditional rulers, and religious leaders should help in assisting the children by enrolling them to schools like their fellow counterparts.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- The Conceptualization of Internally Displaced Persons
There is no legal definition for IDPs as there is for Refugees. However, the United Nations report, Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement posit that IDPs are groups that are forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or homes, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border. The ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors are often due to armed conflict or violation of human right(s) or man-made disasters. Refugees are displaced persons who, due to one of the reasons as mentioned earlier, migrate to another state. Salama et al. (2001) noted that refugees have a unique status in International law. That the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugee has an international responsibility to protect the rights of affected victims and coordinate both human and fundamental needs was espoused by the UNHCR in 2001. In international law, there are two classifications of displacement; Refugee and Internally Displaced Persons with acronym IDPs. A refugee is a group of people who flee from their home country to neighbouring state to seek protection outside their state border due to a threat to life while the internally displaced persons flee from their homes but stay in the country where the conflict occurred (Chimni 2000). According to the Guiding Principle of the United Nations population, Internally Displaced are often referred to as those who flee their residence as a result of insecurity caused by violence and systematic abuse of human right. They change their residences, away from such violence and the deprivation.
Questions still loom if these persons are considered as a part of the political, social and economic order, especially when references are made to undeveloped nations. The case for this concern stems from the fact that the IDPs in these countries are more often than not, forgot or left to their fate, and directly or indirectly further deprived of some fundamental human rights, not limited to the deprivation that precipitated their displacement. They are not catered for; neither is the cause of their movement tackled with seriousness, particularly in Nigeria. The aftermath of the Boko Haram insurgency led to the outgrowth of the IDPs and displacement problems, lay credence to the above argument.
