IDPs Kick As Yobe Mulls Returning Them To Ghost Towns

Agbo-Paul Augustine, By Hussaini Jirgi
— Mar 12, 2016
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Yobe State are jittery over plans to return them to their ancestral communities. HUSSAINI JIRGI (DAMATURU) and AGBO-PAUL AUGUSTINE (Abuja) report on the reaction of the people and the internal security in some IDPs camps in the northeast.

Even as the Yobe State government mulls the idea of returning the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) based in Damaturu, the state capital to their ancestral towns and villages even as it awaits clearance from the Nigerian military, not a few of the IDPs are comfortable with a return to the deserted places.

About 3,000 IDPs from Gulani and Gujba local government areas, taking refuge in camps in Kukareta along Maiduguri Road and Ksesa along Gujba Road respectively all in Damaturu, have said that they wouldn’t return to “ghost towns seized from Boko Haram.

Some of them who had the opportunity of visiting the towns on a tour recently could not believe what they saw of burnt-out homes and looted properties for the first time since Nigerian troops retook the 2 council areas and some villages from Boko Haram insurgents.

Our correspondent, who recently visited two IDPs camps in the state reported that scores of people of the two communities, were forced to flee after Boko Haram terrorists seized the towns of Gujba and Gulani.

Upon fleeing the towns and villages, many people are now taking refuge in Damaturu, the state capital while others moved to others state.

Some of the IDPs who recounted their ordeals, said they had to flee to Damaturu, for their lives as life under the insurgents was unbearable.

Gujba and Gulani local government areas have been repeatedly targeted in a bitter conflict which has left hundreds of people dead and made thousands homeless.

It was the first town recaptured in the state in the fight backed by troops from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, which was launched because of the growing fears of Boko Haram’s threat to regional security.

Meanwhile, some refuges who spoke on condition of anonymity have expressed that they wouldn’t return to their ghost towns, even though their possessions were gone, the refugees said the recent tour of the towns was reassuring “we are now convinced our town has been liberated and we hope to come and rebuild our lives once Boko Haram is finally wiped out” they said.

An IDP, Mallam Usman Gulani, while sharing his experience in the hands of the threaded group said they were confused by the activities of the insurgents as no one knew what exactly they wanted, adding “they can announce a law in the night and change it in the morning.

“I wonder, we really don’t understand their motive. Another thing that is also confusing is that they are killing both Muslims and Christians alike. Many people are fleeing their villages, most of us will not go back to our villages, even if we go back, our villages is empty, everything had been destroyed and burnt.

“As at now, we don’t have anything in hand, what arrangement the state or federal government is doing for us if we go back, where are we going to get water to drink, schools to take our children to and how can we go to a ghost towns to continue our activities?” he lamented.

Hajiya Binta Gujba, who moved from Gujba to Damaturu camp, said since she arrived, she has not been given a meat or mattress to sleep on and that whenever she demand for it, they will ask her to bring her husband which she has not seen since they left Gujba. She lamented that life has not been easy for her.

Speaking to Journalists in Damaturu, the chairman resettlement of the internal displaced persons who is also the Yobe State Deputy Governor, Engr. Abubakar Aliyu said plans are underway to return the IDPs to their respective communities, villages and towns as soon as the military give the signal of doing that.

According to him, the state government has not forgotten the plights of the IDPs, “we are working on returning you to your respective towns, we are awaiting signal from the security force to okay your return. We will take care of everything to secure your lives and properties when you go back to your towns and villages,” he assures.

He also assured that government would continue to cushion the pains of the IDPs through the provision of tents, toilets, foodstuff, clothing, drugs, security and water.

No internal violence in Camps-NEMA

A recent report in the social media that went viral of a teenage boy almost killed by his peers in one of the IPD camps in Borno State was denied by the coordinator, NorthEast of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Mohammed Kanar in a telephone interview with LEADERSHIP Weekend.

Kanar said there is no violence among the teenagers in the various camps aside normal squabbles which can also be found in normal communities around the country.

A teenage boy escaped death at an IDP camp in Borno State, after some of his peers allegedly tried to slaughter him. The story, which has little details, was shared on Twitter and it shows a boy of not more than 12 years old, spotting a gash on his throat.

Recently, the Victim Support Fund (VSF) says it will give no fewer than 30,000 orphans in Borno Internally Displaced Persons’ camps free scholarship this year.

The figure of orphans in IDP camps across the country is still a subject of debate as no clear data is available.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission has tasked the Nigerian government to address the high prevalence of sexual violence and other forms of violence in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in northeast Nigeria.

Following a 5-day assessment visit to Nigeria over the rehabilitation of victims of the Boko Haram insurgency, the Commission is of the view that increased access to legal aid is required to stop the impunity in violating the vulnerable victims.

The UNHRC appealed to the government and international partners to provide skills development and livelihood opportunities, especially for the women and girls in the IDP camps to get decent jobs and build a future.

The head of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the region further told LEADERSHIP Weekend that all the IDP camps are well secured with three levels of security. He said the Soldiers take charge of the surrounding territory, screening movement in and out of the camps on a regular basis.

According to him, the Police and the Nigerian Security Civil Defence Corps takes charge of the next level of security while the Civilian JTF are in charge of the lower realm because of their closeness to the people.

He also said nobody is being forced to return his or her community by the authority in the camps. “By the time we find out that the area is 100 percent safe, we will make plans to return the IDPs,” Kanar said.

He further stated that NEMA had a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Yobe State government to feed the IDP for three months and watch if security in their communities is safe for a return of the victims and that if the conditions does not improve, “we will sign another one”.

Adding that there are about 21 governmental and non-governmental organisation currently working for the safety and healthy living of IDPs across the various camps.