The Borno State Government says over 35, 000 people have been killed and two million displaced as a result of the Boko Haram crisis in the state.
The Chief of Staff to the state governor, Prof. Isah Marte, disclosed this in Abuja at the weekend when he led the state government delegation to the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, to seek the federal government’s intervention in the state’s healthcare delivery system.
“The total cost of destruction in the Northeast is about N9bn and Borno state took the lion’s share of N6bn.
“So, we really need assistance not only from development partners but also from the federal government.
“Just to recap some of the destructions especially in the health sector, 11 hospitals were completely burnt.
“One was partially burnt, 7 were vandalised,185 primary healthcare centres were destroyed.
“So, in the health sector, the total facility; hospital, primary healthcare centres destroyed as of 2015, was 248. But the government has done a lot.
“We’ve renovated or built almost half of those structures so far.
“We’ve less than 1,000 nurses and recently, we recruited over 360 nurses.
“We’ve only 7 pharmacists and we are going to recruit 45 more. We have interviewed some and we are going to employ more,” he said.
Responding, the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire said: “We do worry about what is going on there and how we can help; how we can put our heads together and see how we can alleviate the suffering of the people.”
