BEVERLY HILLS, April 09, (THEWILL) – The Borno state Government has revealed on Sunday that it plans to evacuate 78,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) back home from Cameroon.
NAN reports that the affected IDPs fled to Cameroon at the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency in the state but had a week ago urged the state government to facilitate their return home or they will trek back to Nigeria.
Chairman of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Ahmad Satome, told newsmen in Maiduguri that government plans to shelter the returnees in four temporary satellite camps.
Satome said that IDPs without any place to go would be kept in the camps while those who wanted to return home would be transported home.
“The issue of the 78,000 Nigerian IDPs is purely a repatriation process, it is just to get them across the Cameroonian border back home.
“Once they are back we will get them transported to transit camps in Kumshe, Gulumba, Ngoshe and Kirawa where they will feed for a week or thereabout, so they can stabilize before asking them where they want to go.
“IDPs without homes or those whose communities are unsafe will be kept in the camps while those who want to return home will be transported home.
“But for those who wished to remain in Cameroon they will be allowed to stay in accordance with the Geneva Convention.
“It is true that government is resolute in ensuring all IDPs return home in a dignified manner in accordance to the Kampala convention but sometimes a lots of uncertainties come in.
“The intense pressure by the military on Boko Haram enclaves have led to rescue of new IDPs requiring care. This means that they have to be kept in camps for care and other humanitarian services.
“I think it is unwise to keep 2,000 IDPs from Ngala in Maiduguri when you have about 200,000 others in Ngala town.
“I think that the best thing is to move those willing to camps in their respective areas from where they can gradually move home.”
