Borno State Governor, Babagana Umara Zulum, has ordered the immediate closure of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Bama, one of the largest displacement facilities outside Maiduguri, citing improved security conditions and growing concerns over criminal activities within the camps.
Gatekeepers News reports that the governor made the announcement on Thursday during an assessment visit to the Government Secondary School IDP camp in Gwoza, where he also indicated that the Gwoza camp would be shut down in the coming weeks.
“We visited Bama yesterday and supervised the screening of IDPs, and by 12 noon, Bama IDP camp should be closed,” Zulum stated.
“Today we are here in Gwoza, we have profiled all of them, and Insha Allah, in the next two or three weeks this camp will also be closed.”
Zulum attributed the decision to the relative peace restored in many communities previously occupied by Boko Haram insurgents, enabling displaced residents to return to their ancestral homes.
Over the past seven years, the Borno State Government has resettled thousands of displaced persons in communities including Darajamal, Nguro Soye, Goniri, Banki, Abbaram, Ngoshe, Kirawa and Warabe, among others.
However, the governor expressed concern over what he described as increasing criminality within displacement camps, warning that some facilities were becoming vulnerable to infiltration by insurgent groups.
“In our camps now, there is an ongoing criminality; we have identified all of them and they’ll be resettled based on their localities and to their community heads. Otherwise, Boko Haram/ISWAP are gradually infiltrating the camps,” he said.
The governor also raised concerns about the growing number of individuals returning to camps despite having homes in their communities, allegedly to benefit from humanitarian assistance distributed by non-governmental organisations.
According to him, the government’s screening exercise uncovered a significant number of people posing as displaced persons.
“Many of those that are residents living in their homes are returning to the camps to receive handouts from non-governmental organisations. We will ensure the returns are sustainable,” Zulum said.
“One year ago, this was almost a ghost camp with not more than about 400 households. It is surprising that about 3,000 households are back in the camp, and most of them are residents living within the town.”
He stressed that the state government could no longer sustain the operation of camps under such conditions and reiterated plans to close additional IDP camps across the state before the end of his administration.
The governor assured that all resettlement efforts would be carried out in a manner that guarantees the safety, stability and long-term welfare of returning residents.
