IDPs Abduction: Exact number not yet ascertained, some women voluntarily returned to the bush – Zulum
March 8, 2024
Following the abduction of over two hundred women and young girls from three IDP camps in Ngala at the Nigeria-Cameroon border, the Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum says available information indicates that some of the women and girls voluntarily returned to the bush.
The governor said the exact number of the abducted women and girls is yet to be ascertained as no official communication has been made to his office.
According to Channels Television report, Zulum made the declaration while playing host to a team of diplomats, a UN delegation, and development partners in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
“It has become no more sustainable for us to keep the people at the IDP camps. But if the 19 of you here, 23 of you here, are willing to provide immediate support for us, bring the food items and we keep the food items, then we shall continue to keep the people,” he said.
“But the problem is that we have started experiencing donor fatigue. Most of the donors have left. Even for those that are around, the quantum of support that they are providing to the IDP camps has been reduced drastically.
“And then people now want to earn by themselves. A few days ago, I was at Mafa. Mafa is my local government. I was born and brought up there. Some women numbering about 500 demonstrated that they don’t want to live in the IDP. They want to go to the bush. We have to be very careful.”
Zulum said his administration is targeting the construction of 85,000 new houses in 66 communities in the state aimed at resettling IDPs and other victims of the Boko Haram insurgency.
More than 40,000 people have been killed and around two million displaced from their homes in 14 years of conflict in Borno State and the country’s North-East region.
The violence spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the jihadist groups.