Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, says a UN joint delegation will visit Maiduguri, Bama and Abuja first week of October, to scale up its humanitarian intervention in the crisis affected areas.

Onyeama said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after a meeting with the UN team leaders on the sidelines of the 73rd UN General Assembly in New York.

The minister said that the team would be led by the UNDP Administrator, Mr Achim Steiner and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Head of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Mr Mark Lowcock.

He said that the joint UN Development Programme (UNDP)-OCHA Principal-level mission was part of the world ogranisation efforts to support the victims of Boko Haram insurgency in the region.

Onyeama said that the visit was sequel to the High-Level Conference on the Lake Chad Basin Crisis in Berlin, where the international community committed to a comprehensive crisis response in the Lake Chad Region.

He explained that the conference was held at the beginning of September in Berlin on the humanitarian and development efforts on the Lake Chad Basin area.

Onyeama said that the visit was aimed at discussing with senior government and donor officials in Nigeria on how to further strengthen humanitarian and development responses, including national and local ownership in the northeast.

“We are looking essentially on how to build on the humanitarian programme and the UN has been very much involved and supportive on the humanitarian front in the northeast

“We realised that we have to now move towards the development stage; they also want to hear from the Nigerian government what they should be looking at.

“And of course, it is about reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement; it is about creating an environment for economic growth which
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