Abstract

The paper focuses on on how the rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) can be protected in the occurence of armed conflict in the North-East of Nigeria. The discourse is imperative because the rights of the IDPs in the North-East are guarded as provided by the international humanitarian law. Qualitative research method is adopted in this paper. Displacement is one of the negative effects of insecurity because during the time of terror act, occurrence of loss of lives and properties is imminent and in most cases ‘soft-target’ (civilians) are always victims of insecurity. This will make a good number of people to flee for safety elsewhere, thereby abandoning their places of abode. The displacement occured as a result of Boko-Haram insurgency. Several dwellers in the North-East of Nigeria experienced displacement during the insurgency period. Many of these displaced persons were accommodated in various camps while many decided to find their way elsewhere. There is no doubt that the act of displacement causes negative impact on the right of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). The question now is: are the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) well treated or not? If the answer is in negative or positive, the next question is: what is the yardstick to measure the adequacy of the treatment? However, where the treatment is not adequate, what right are exercisable by the IDPs? The welfare of the IDPs ought to be taken care of within a reasonable standard which is supposed to be defined by a legal instrument which will be used as a yardstick to determine what rights are exercisable by the IDPs. Finding shows that the Internally Displaced Persons are faced with challenges of inadequate food, shelter, safe drinking water, health facility and above all security. They are also faced with negative economic impact of the displacement. This paper aims at showcasing the inadequacy of treatment of the Internally Displaced Persons in the North East Nigeria and to make recommendation in that direction in order to ensure that rights of the IDPs are adequately protected. All tiers of government in Nigeria have a duty by collaborative efforts to ensure safety of life and property of every Nigeria and where the government fairly, there must be a kind of solace or palliatives from the government to mitigate hardships encountered by the victims of the displacement as are effect of the government failure to provide adequate security in the Country.