Borno establishes 21st IDPs’ camp, houses Nigerien deportees
May 9, 2015 :
Borno State Government on
Saturday established a camp for the indigenes of the state recently
repatriated from neighbouring Niger Republic.
The establishment of a special camp for the repatriated indigenes,
who are among the over 6,000 deported from Niger after the attack on two
of the country’s islands by the Boko Haram sect, takes the number of
camps established for Internally Displaced Persons to 21 in the state.
Speaking to journalists while receiving the first batch of 1,200
deportees at Njimtilo, at the entrance to Maiduguri, the Borno State
capital, the chairman of the State Emergency Management Agency, Alhaji
Grema Terab, said the state government decided to establish a new camp
for them because of their special case.
Grema, who explained that another set of 17 mass transit buses had
been sent to Geidam to convey the second batch of 1,200 people, added
that more people were still expected as the Nigerien government
continued to repatriate more people.
He said, “The 2,400 are not the only people we are expecting back
in Borno from Niger and provisions have been made to get them housed in
one of the 400 Housing Estate along Gubio Road.”
Grema said the camp was created for them because of their peculiar situation.
He added, “Some of them, though Nigerians, were born in Niger and
have never been to Nigeria. We have to keep them in a camp for now,
console them and treat those that are traumatised with the intention of
allowing them to mix with other Nigerians in not too distant a time.
“We are equally looking at the possibility of assisting them to
start a new life in the country by given them economic assistance.”
He said the state government was not ruling out collapsing the new camp into the 20 already in existence after few months.
“When we are sure the local government of the deportees, we will
allow them to mix with their people in the other local governments. We
will also involve them in the larger programme of rehabilitation of the
victims of the insurgency,” he said.
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