NEMA re-unites 200 children with parents in Borno

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Friday said it had reunited more than 200 children with their parents affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.

Mr Sa’ad Bello, the Head of Operations, Adamawa and Taraba office of the agency, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yola.

Bello said that the successful re-unification was conducted with the collaboration of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) under Restoring Family Link Programme.

He said that the children, mostly of between the age of five and 12, were from Bama and Baga in Borno.

“Meanwhile, we still have about 165 unaccompanied children in four designated camps in Adamawa,” he said.

The official said some families from Bama visited some Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Yola where they identified their children.

He said that the agency with the support of ICRC, was working hard, through appropriate channels, to identify the parents of the remaining unaccompanied children.

NAN reports that family reunification during armed conflicts is a right under international law.

The development is in line with the fourth Geneva Convention.

The convention states that governments should facilitate the reunification of separated families according to the standards of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).