Kano (Nigeria), Dec 15 (AFP) Nigeria's former Arsenalstriker Nwankwo Kanu led a team of African all-stars in acharity football match to raise money for people displaced bythe Boko Haram insurgency and highlight their plight.
Kanu, Senegal's El-Hadji Diouf, Fabian McCarthy of SouthAfrica and Cyrille Mubiala from the Democratic Republic ofCongo were in a side that took on Nigeria Premier League sideKano Pillars at Kano's Sani Abacha stadium yesterday.
The home side won 2-1 in front of a 16,000-strong crowd.
Ticket sales from the "Match for IDPs" (internallydisplaced persons) will be combined with money from a charitydinner to support those made homeless by the eight-yearconflict.
The Islamist insurgency began in 2009 and has sincekilled at least 20,000 people and made more than 2.6 millionhomeless.
Diouf told reporters after the match his aim by playingwas "to raise awareness of the dire need of the IDPs and raisefunds to support them".
"Whatever money is raised here will be used to supportthe IDPs," added the former Liverpool and Bolton Wanderersforward.
Boko Haram has been pushed out of captured towns andvillages in the northeast but the military counter-insurgencyhas laid bare the extent of the devastation wrought on theremote region.
Some 1.8 million IDPs in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa statesstill live either in sprawling, unsanitary camps or withfamily members. Others have fled as refugees to neighbouringNiger, Chad and Cameroon.
With farmers killed and land blighted by conflict, foodshortages have been widespread, forcing IDPs to rely onhandouts from international aid agencies, who have had toscale back operations because of a lack of funding.
IDPs remain vulnerable to continued Boko Haram attacks,particularly from suicide bombers, while women and young girlshave been exposed to sexual abuse in the camps, including fromsecurity personnel and officials.
Match organiser Abi Goodman said: "We want to usefootball to communicate with the people about what is going onin the IDP camps.
"What we are doing is a drop in the ocean as the IDPneeds are so huge.
"But we want to use this as a rallying point for thegovernment, wealthy individuals and Nigerians living abroad tosupport the IDPs," she added. AFP SSCSSC.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.