Sequel to the abduction of over two hundred women and young girls from three Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps in Ngala at the Nigeria-Cameroon border, Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State says some of the women and girls have voluntarily returned to the bush.
Zulum made this disclosure while playing host to a team of diplomats, a UN delegation, and development partners in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, saying that the exact number of the abducted women and girls is yet to be ascertained as no official communication has been made to his office.
“It has become no longer 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 like they are having a difficult time getting proud today.
“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 didn’t want to live in the IDP. They want to go to the bush. We have to be very careful,” he said.
Zulum reiterated his administration’s commitment to constructing 85,000 new houses in 66 communities in the state aimed at resettling IDPs and other victims of the Boko Haram insurgency.
