The UN said on Monday in Abuja that it had sponsored 500 victims of Boko Haram violence from three North-East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe to acquire vocational skills.
Mr. Matthew Alao, UN Conflict Prevention and Peace Building Analyst, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the programme was under the UNDP Livelihood Support Scheme for the zone.
Alao explained that an orientation programme for the 500 selected beneficiaries commenced on Monday at the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre in Jos, Plateau State.
According to him, the skills acquisition programme is the first phase of intervention by the UN to reduce the suffering of the displaced persons.
Alao said that the skills training would cover hair dressing, tailoring, knitting, catering, decorations, GSM repair, shoe-making, leather works and computer studies.
According to him, the participants will also undertake specialised training on conflict resolution and peace building.
“A total of 500 beneficiaries who are victims of Boko Haram from three North-East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe will be placed in a two-week compulsory orientation programme.
“They are going to undergo physical exercise, training, capacity building on mediation, conflict prevention, conflict transformation, social integration, peaceful coexistence for two weeks.
“We received over 2,000 applications and engaged in rigorous screening out of which we selected the 500 that genuinely need this assistance.
“We took the successful 500 candidates for two weeks intensive course on mental and physical training.
“We are also going to train them on mediation and conflict transformation as well as business management; after that, we will put then on a six-month to one-year training,’’ he said.
“Some of them had means of livelihood before, but unfortunately their means of sustaining livelihood have been cut short because of the Boko Haram insurgency.
“But we want to assure them that for every one that is impacted in one way or the other, they will be accommodated in the various phases of the Early Recovery Programme,” he said.
Meanwhile, the 23rd Armoured Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, barred the use of motorbike popularly known as “Okada” as a means of transport across all the 21 Local Government Areas in the state.
The ban which was contained in a statement signed and made available to The Punch by the Brigade’s Army Public Relations Officer, Captain Nuhu Jafaru, stated that the step was adopted as part of the military strategy to carry out its operations in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency across the state and North-East zone.
According to the statement, the military made the same ban on some selected local government areas in the state about two years ago which is still in force, stressing that the new order made it total and mandatory in all the councils in the state.
The statement issued admonished the people to comply with the directive.
However, some operators of motor cycles and farmers interviewed over the development expressed apprehension, stressing that it was their only source of livelihood.
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