Zannah Mustapha, the Nigerian
mediator who brokered a deal for the release of dozens of Chibok school girls
captured by Boko Haram, has been named this year’s winner of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Nansen Refugee Award.
The Nansen Refugee Award
recognises extraordinary humanitarian work on behalf of refugees, the
internally displaced or stateless people.
UNHCR, the United Nations’
refugee agency, announced Monday that the 2017 recipient is Mustapha,
a lawyer and mediator from Borno State in northeast Nigeria.
The agency said Mustapha
received the prestigious award in recognition of his efforts to improve the
lives of displaced children and widows upended by the regional conflict with
Boko Haram.
“The work Mustapha and his team
are doing is of the utmost importance, helping to foster peaceful coexistence
and rebuild communities in northeastern Nigeria.”
With this award, we honor his
vision and service,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo
Grandi said in a statement.
Since Boko Haram launched its
brutal insurgency in northern Nigeria in 2009, more than 20,000 people have
been killed, thousands of women and girls have been abducted and children have
been drafted into the terrorist group’s ranks as suicide bombers.
Up to 2.1 million residents
fled their homes in Nigeria at the height of the conflict — 1.9 million of whom
are currently internally displaced — while over 200,000 others remain in
neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, where they were forced to flee, according
to the latest data from the UN.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of
children in Nigeria are growing up without schooling, as the West African
nation’s education sector is strained by its swelling youth population, and
education facilities in the northeast remain under attack by Boko Haram
militants, who have destroyed countless schools and killed hundreds of teachers
in the past eight years.
“Conflict can leave children
with physical and emotional scars that are deep and lasting. It forces them
from their homes, exposes them to unspeakable atrocities, and often rips apart
their families,” Grandi said in a statement.
“Education is one of the most
powerful tools for helping refugee children overcome the horrors of violence
and forced displacement.
It empowers young people,
equips them with skills and works to counter exploitation and recruitment by
armed groups.”
In 2007, Mustapha founded the
Future Prowess Islamic Foundation School for orphans and vulnerable children in
Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State and the birthplace of Boko Haram.
The school currently provides
free education to 540 students, half of which are girls. Four times as many
children are on a waiting list, according to UNHCR.
Amid the growing demand for
classroom seats, Mustapha in 2016 opened a second school near the other
facility, which now hosts 88 pupils, all of whom have been forcibly displaced
from their homes.
Mustapha and 48 volunteer
teachers and staff members open the schools’ doors each day, despite the
ongoing conflict.
The schools are among the only
functional primary education institutions in besieged Maiduguri, according to
UNHCR.
“Schools lie at the heart of a
society. Destroying them crushes the chance of Nigeria’s next generation
succeeding,”
Norwegian Refugee Council’s
Secretary General Jan Egeland, whose organization co-manages the Nanson Refugee
Award project, said in a statement.
“The recognition of Zannah
Mustapha’s brave work highlights the importance of education for the future of
Nigeria.”
The students enrolled at
Mustapha’s schools receive uniforms and healthcare services. Some are children
and orphans of Boko Haram fighters and Nigerian soldiers.
“This is the place where every
child matters, no matter what religion, background or culture,” Mustapha
explained in a recent interview with UNHCR.
“Our aim is make positive
changes in their lives.”
Hauwa Madu, 13, is among the
displaced children at the Future Prowess Islamic Foundation School.
Three years ago, Boko Haram
gunmen stormed her small home in a northeast village near Damboa and killed her
father three years ago.
Her mother, who was pregnant,
died in childbirth soon after.
“When I think about my parents
I become sad, I miss them,” Hauwa recounted in a recent interview with UNHCR,
as tears rolled down her cheeks.
“This school is really like my
home now. I can think of tomorrow again because of what [Mustapha]
has done for us here.”
Mustapha has also played a
crucial role mediating in the past year between the Nigerian government and
Boko Haram for the release of 103 girls and young women abducted by the
terrorist group from a boarding school in the town of Chibok, Borno State, in
April 2014.
The mediator, who grew up in
Maiduguri alongside some of Boko Haram’s leadership, escorted 21 Chibok
schoolgirls to freedom in October 2016. Another 82 have been released with
Mustapha’s assistance, according to UNHCR.
Mustapha said he believes more
Chibok schoolgirls will be freed soon.
Source: www.tribuneonlineng.com
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