100,000 People Sent Back Home, As Borno Shuts IDP Camp

Borno State, Governor Babagana Zulum, has announced the closure of the Internally Displaced Persons camps in the Government Senior Science Secondary School, Monguno.

This was coming after the reported threats by terrorists to attack Monguno in the northern part of the state.

With the closure of the camp, the IDP camps that the state government has closed since 2018 are now about 13.

Over 100,000 IDPs drawn from parts of Kukawa, Nganzai, Marte and Guzamala LGAs displaced by the Boko Haram insurgents were housed by the Monguno IDP camp, about 120 km from Maiduguri.

According to a recent investigation report, the terrorists have marked Monguno, Marte and Abadan, all in northern Borno, for decisive attacks, following a systematic flow of arms and fighters from the Sahel ISIS to lend more strength to ISWAP around the Lake Chad basin.

However, Zulum, apparently satisfied with the level of security and peace restored in some of the communities, said the closure of the Monguno IDP camp was to pave the way for the rehabilitation of the school to facilitate the resumption of academic activities.

Zulum who visited the camp to assess the extent of destruction resulting from the Boko Haram attack and the prolonged use by internally displaced persons, noted that yhe IDPs would be relocated to occupy the 1,000 resettlement houses built in the town for citizens affected by the over one-decade-old Boko Haram insurgency.

Monguno’s 1,000 houses are part of the housing intervention that forms over 10,000 resettlement houses constructed by Zulum’s administration since 2019.

The governor also noted that IDPs who were from communities and villages that attained relative peace would be returned, particularly those from Kekeno, Mile 90 and Yoyo, among others.

“We will return those of you from communities which have attained relative peace, everyone that is willing to return will be provided with a resettlement package to pick up the pieces of their lives,” Zulum said.