Borno IDP relocation: Different strokes for different folks

3000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Shiroro and Munya local government areas taking refuge in Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) Primary School Minna

Many of the internally displaced persons recently relocated to settlement areas by Borno state government relieve their experinces in this report by SADIQ ABUBAKAR.

Thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Maiduguri are being resettled in their ancestral homes despite the selective attacks from Boko Haram insurgents.
A cross-section of the returnees have expressed fears that their relocation may be threatened by remnants of the terrorists still in their hide-outs because they are yet to voluntarily surrender to the military especially areas around Lake Chad Basin region from where they invade communities for food, money and logistics.


The insurgents frustrate the peaceful livelihood of returnees who are expected to live a normal life of engaging in farming and fishing as well as other petty trading that they were denied of while in the camps.


Some of them are of the views that idleness in those camps culminated in rape, prostitution and stealing as they were exposed to lack of food and non-food items to cater for themselves and their families.


Opinions still have it that some of the children orphaned by insurgents still live without support from the government or NGOs because they were stopped by the state government from rendering any assistance without collaboration with the state government.


Others fear that resettlement sites have not been adequately provided with security and other basic facilities despite being located within the local government council headquarters.

Various views from returnees

Forty five-year-old father of eight, Modu Mustapha, expressed worries that they may not survive in those resettlement areas which is not originally their ancestral home in Gubio LGA.
A good number of returnees told Blueprint that there is a possibility of the IDPs to face more difficulties worse than what they experienced in the camps, if the state government and NGOs do not come to their aid.


It would be recalled that the state government had on May 29, 2022 closed all the official or designed IDPs camps.
Although, it was observed that some IDPs from Gubio, Bama, Mobbar and Konduga LGAs who are from the Borno-north and Borno-central Senatorial Districts were alternatively provided with options of either accepting to be relocated to their original communities.


Others opted for financial assistance in order to rent accommodation in their host communities within the Maiduguri, especially for those who were not willing to return to their LGAs.


Nevertheless, the state government had made it very clear that the options were not compulsory neither imposed on them, but optional.


Blueprint gathered that their choice was coordinated by a standing committee already set up by the state government in 2020 charged with the responsibility of resettling the IDPs.


Most of the affected IDPs expressed their delight and joy for returning to their ancestral homes at last. They described their communities as freer and decent than IDPs camps where many consider like a prison, having being caged and restricted like prisoners.


Habu Musa, another 58 year- old-man with 10 children and two wives from Ngoshe village of Gwoza LGA complained of returning to resettle. He said that would rather make his family’s life difficult. According to him, this is in terms of accomodation, education of his children and his mason job, as according to him, finding people to work for would be very difficult. This is because it is only in Maiduguri city that he can get customers unlike the resettlement camp in LGAs.
He said, “We appreciate the efforts of the governor to resettle out of the camp after about seven years of living in IDP camp, but honestly, taking us back to Gwoza where there are no building works by people or government would not be beneficial at all. Instead, they should return us directly to our ancestral homes to enable us farm and feed ourselves.
“Apart from my hand work, I also farm in the village to feed my large family. We the villagers are known as great farmers from Gwoza. We don’t have any other means of earning a living better than farming. Even when we were in the camp, we still go to farm from time to time outside the camp areas to farm small portion to feed ourselves when our movement and farming were allowed, ” Musa said.
BaGoni Adam, an IDP from Bama who was displaced by Boko Haram about seven years ago told Blueprint that many of them are worried about their relocation by the state government. He said, “Even as we move to Bama, we are not sure of getting enough land for farming as going beyond some kilometres outside Bama town to farm is very delicate as a result of possible threats and attacks from the terrorists who still attack the town from time to time despite presence of military formation in Bama town and it’s environs along Pulka-Banki-Gwoza axis,” BaGoni said.
Another IDP Bukar Kolo with a family size of three wives and 12 children aged 63 from Glulumba area of Bama LGA while lamenting on their relocation said, “Government should know that we are mostly farmers and livestock traders. Taking us back to Bama for now is unnecessary and unsafe.


“We are already having problem of water supply sources in Bama town and there is water shortage in the IDPs camp already as well the resettlement housing estate in Bama. No school and health facility yet as well.


“We could be resettled even at the outskirts of Maiduguri city like where most of us have been living and do go to Alau Dam areas to farm from the Dalori IDP Camps and return. But taking us to Bama now indicates that we have to travel out on long distances by paying money to transport ourselves to farm areas instead of trekking and return late.


“We may even get locked out of the estate at the entrance gate if we fail to return on time. That’s why we said that if the government had left us alone at Dalori IDPs camp or elsewhere close to the town, Maiduguri, we wouldn’t have any problem neither bother ourselves on how to earn a living again unlike in a new environment like Bama where businesses have not taken up yet and farmlands are at far distances. Worst still, the area is still not safe for farming and other related activities due to periodic attacks and threats from the Boko Haram insurgents,” Kolo said.


A female grocer who sells fresh pepper, tomatoes, cucumbers and vegetables along the roadside beside Dalori IDPs camps, ages 43, but a mother of six children, also has her own story. The woman who is from Malari village of Bama LGA and lost her husband during an attack on the village about seven years ago said, “Along with some women , I often trek to Alau and surrounding villages to buy fresh groceries and other vegetables including Moringa, Lettuce, Kuka, Yakuwa, etc to for sale.”


Speaking further she said, “I either sell the goods by the roadside around the IDPs camps or at times hawk around 203, 302 Housing Estate or Mairi axis of Bama road in Maiduguri town. This is to earn a living and feed my orphans.”


Report has it that the proceeds helps a lot in catering for the children and herself at the IDPs camp daily as her relations and in laws, she said, are of no help.
“So, with this relocation, it would not be possible for me to get to Alau Dam and surrounding villages again from the Dalori IDPs camps to buy and sell the vegetables and other ingredients because it is not going to be as usual and easy for me to set out early morning to those places and return for sales by noon.


“Now that we have been moved out of the camp and even away from the town, this kind of petty trading in Bama would be difficult for me which invariably would expose us to severe hardships and sufferings as my children and I cannot farm to feed ourselves, talkless of sending them to school to continue with their schooling,” she lamented.


“They are serious with western education and committed always despite our helpless and pathetic condition. I am afraid their ambition or future may die certainly as there is no hope to continue with our business in Bama Resettlement houses where there are no gardens or irrigation farming, because the place is not a marshy area. Things may be more tasking or even impossible for us as I envisage,” she said.