SAN FRANCISCO, August 13, (THEWILL) – The Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast has displaced no fewer than 400,000 persons since January.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) made the disclosure on Wednesday in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
NEMA Information Officer for the Northeast zonal office AbdulKadir Ibrahim, who disclosed this put the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from January to July 31 in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States before the recent attacks in Gwoza and Doron-Baga at 360,462.
According to Ibrahim, Borno State alone had 183,031 IDPs, with Adamawa and Yobe recording 147,198 and 30,233 respectively from January till the end of last month.
He said the development had overstretched NEMA which had to be prepared at all time to meet the humanitarian crisis in the region.
According to him, “because of the magnitude of cases of areas affected by the insurgency and the numbers of IDPs, NEMA has trained volunteers and Emergency Management Vanguard who work with the Red Cross to set up camps and to register internally displaced persons.”
He disclosed that those recently displaced during the capture of Gwoza by Boko Haram are now taking refuge in Madagali in Adamawa State and Uba in Borno State, with others fleeing to neighbouring Cameroon.
He added that those displaced by last Sunday’s Boko Haram attack on Doron-Baga are being accommodated at the Central Primary School, Baga.
The NEMA spokesman said the agency has been struggling to provide relief materials to over 30,000 persons currently being accommodated in various facilities in Madagali, Uba and Doron-Baga.
He further disclosed that plans are on to move relief materials to the facilities in the three communities, adding that some relief items had just been provided by the Dangote Foundation and the Presidential Committee on Disaster for the various facilities at NYSC Borno orientation camp, EYN Church in Maiduguri, Gidan Kaji, Pompomari and Gwange where 200 Nigerian refugees from Central African Republic are being accommodated.
