Zulum shuts four IDPs camps, returns 11,000 households
Prof. Zulum
Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has closed four Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps with the return of 11,000 households to six communities of the state.
The communities affected by the over a decade Boko Haram terrorism comprise Marte, Baga, Banki, Warabe, Kerenoa, Wulgo and Ngurosoye in four local councils.
Flagging off the IDPs’ return, yesterday, at the Maiduguri Dalori I camp, the governor identified that the four closed camps as Dalori 1, Dalori II, Gubio Road and Muna El-Badawi.
According to the Director-General, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Yabawa Kolo, over 66,000 displaced persons have returned to their liberated communities.
“We can no longer keep the displaced persons in the various camps, as there is growing rate of prostitution, drug abuse and neglect of babies,” he said.
Zulum attributed the closure of the camps to lack of funding, adding that four more are yet to be closed, as the IDPs from six communities would return to their ancestral homes next year.
On Victims Support Fund (VSF) intervention, he said: “The Fund has expended N1.7 billion to return IDP households to their liberated communities.
“VSF has contributed more than any other Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) to the people of Borno. There is no amount of words to convey our gratitude to VSF under the leadership of Gen. Theopholus Danjuma (rtd).”
The Executive Director of VSF, Prof. Nana Tanko, said: “It was in this camp that I faced the reality of what the insurgency had done to the lives of our people. I saw many children, families, and at the end of the threats, I broke down and cried.”
She said that VSF has a mandate of restoring and helping the people to be resettled in their communities.
