17,053 babies born by Borno IDPs in 2 years five months —IOM

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has said about 17,053 babies were born in the 18 camps of the Internally Displaced Persons in Borno State between 2019 and May 2021.

According to the UN agency, the figure only represents information of babies who were registered between the periods under review.

The IOM Chief of Mission in Nigeria, Frantz Celestin said the organisation collaborates with the National Population Commission (NPC) and United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to issue birth certificates to the children.

Speaking at the celebration of its 20th anniversary in the country, he said the identity of the children was important, as it falls within IOM’s Displacement Matrix Data, which it shares with other stakeholders intervening in the North East.

His words: “We do biometric data collection so that we know exactly the number of people who have been displaced so that the service we provide to them can be effective.

“This is important for food distribution, for non-food items distribution, it is also important for medical provision.

“Some of the work that we do on our displacement matrix data is to work with the population commission and UNICEF to provide birth certificates to those under five who were born in the camps.

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“On the number of children that were born in the camps, I know last time I checked, those we had taken the biometrics and issued with birth certificates between 2019 and May 2021 were 17,053.”

However, Celestine said it was regrettable that many people in Nigeria only identify IOM with retuning of migrants, noting that its work goes beyond that.

“In Nigeria, IOM is celebrating its 20th anniversary. But there are a lot of people who don’t know the extent of IOM’s presence in Nigeria, seeing IOM as managing migration or just bringing people back from Libya. But there is a lot more to what we do.

“We are the biggest shelter providers in the North East, the biggest camp managers – managing 115 camps. Also, we have 19 mobile teams looking after the mental health of those who have been traumatised by Boko Haram.

“We have migration data collection and management. Most people have come across our data and they don’t know that it is Nigerian Data. If you hear that 2.1 million people have been displaced in the North-East, it is our data.

“The displacement tracking matrix collects these data, provide it to the humanitarian community so that they can do targeted and specific interventions,” he added.

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