At least 500,000 households displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency will benefit N17,000 each from the World Food Programme in 2016, an official has said.

The World Food Programme is a project of the United Nations that addresses hunger and promotes food security.

The Chairman of Borno State Emergency Agency, Ahmed Satomi, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Maiduguri, said 35,000 households had so far benefited.

He said that the agency planned to reach out to 1.4 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) taking refuge in other communities.

“We are targeting the most vulnerable couples, widows and those who have passed through great hardship as a result of the insurgency.

“Apart from our IDPs in the 28 camps, we also have about a million of them taking refuge in host communities of Jere and Maiduguri Metropolitan Council.

“The token would be given to them to encourage them to start up something that would enable them cater for their families to alleviate their suffering,” he said.

Mr. Satomi also spoke of the procedure for giving out the money.

“We will go to each and every of these households to obtain their bio-metric data and head count.

“We will also try to see how we can empower them on basic skills acquisition as well as entrepreneurship which will go a long way in assisting the beneficiaries.

“So far, we have started with Gwange one, two and three, Meri and Shettimari areas in the state capital,” he said.

He said that the state government would soon start distributing food items to the IDPs in their host communities.

Apart from causing the death of over 20,000 people since 2009, the Boko Haram insurgency has also caused the displacement of over a million people.

Some of the displaced persons have returned to their homes in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe since the Nigerian Army retook most of the territory formerly controlled by the insurgents.

(NAN)