‘Boko Haram destroyed 267 health centres in eight years’

•Buratai honours soldiers, cholera threatens IDPs

The Borno government yesterday said the Boko Haram Islamist group destroyed 19 general hospitals and 248 primary health care (PHC) centres during the eight years’ insurgency in the state. It also stated that the period witnessed the exodus of medical personnel.

The Commissioner of Health, Dr. Haruna Mshelia, told newsmen yesterday in Maiduguri at an event to mark the state’s council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Week.According to him, the insurgents’ target was the health sector housing over 1,500 workers.

Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, has decorated 65 troops of the 151 Task Force Battalion and 21 Brigade of the Nigerian Army serving in Operation Lafiya Dole for their bravery.

The beneficiaries were acknowledged for their selfless service in the course of the anti-insurgency fight in the North East, especially in two occasions where soldiers were ambushed in two separate occasions.

According to a statement by the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Headquarters 7 Division, Lt. Col. Kingsley Samuel, the COAS described soldiering as a call to national service. 

Also, 79, 837 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are at the risk of contracting cholera in view of the flooding in parts of the north.The Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), which confirmed the fear yesterday to The Guardian in Maiduguri, said the camp had been submerged following a three-hour downpour at the weekend.

“I cannot tell give you the exact casualties, but our fears were that the flood may cause outbreak of water-borne diseases like cholera. Water points have been contaminated by flood,” an official, who craved anonymity, said.He added that the flood had sacked over 14,000 settlements, which according to him, lacked drainage