In the 12 years since Boko Haram started its insurgency in the North East sub-region, millions of people have been affected in ways big and small. This is a well-known fact.
Also well-known is the fact that in the wake of Boko Haram’s relentless attacks on communities before the insurgent group was significantly subdued by the security forces, many people were forced from their homes. Among these, in Yobe State, were some who settled with relatives; those who settled in host communities, such as in Kuka-Reta town on the outskirts of Damaturu metropolis; and those who initially lived in IDP camps.
However, it has been many years since official IDP camps were closed in the state. This is because many of the people in those camps were helped by the state government and by development partners to return to their communities or, in some cases, to fully settle in their respective host communities.
There were a few exceptions to this, however. There were situations where former IDPs, earlier displaced from their communities, decided to take up residence in newly sprung neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the state capital. Many of those people are simply engaged in their individual vocations or activities. Some engaged in farming or operate as farm workers while others engage in menial jobs and small businesses to support their families.
Among those living close to Yobe State University, for instance, there are some who have even set up shops or stalls on campus and engage in their legitimate small businesses.
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But among this category of initially displaced persons, there are also some who require food handouts. The State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), having reckoned with that, periodically provides food and other non-food-item support to these people.
The Yobe SEMA, one of the most notable and active in the country, has a well-documented inventory of supporting these people and other IDPs affected by disaster or conflict. Anyone seeking to know more can visit SEMA’s different handles on social media to see photos, videos, notes and actual testimonies of people who have benefited from the agency’s support among vulnerable and affected communities throughout the state.
Yobe SEMA’s wide-ranging interventions are a testament to the commitment of Governor Mai Mala Buni to help people in need and to ensure that people affected by the Boko Haram insurgency can reclaim their lives and build a future for themselves and their families.
Last week, the United Nations Resident Representative and UNDP Coordinator in Nigeria, Mohamed Yahya, visited Yobe State and offered to assist the state government in its resettlement, reconstruction and stabilization effort.
As was widely reported, the UN resident representative and his team, along with the governor and other Yobe government officials, travelled to Mallam Dunari ward in Gujba LGA, the one and only remaining ward in the state where initially displaced people have yet to return, after being displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency.
The UNDP coordinator promised that the United Nations will help the Yobe State Government to resettle the Mallam Dunari people back in their communities in a dignified manner.
Anyone following the trajectory of efforts of the state government with regard to IDPs affected by the Boko Haram insurgency, therefore, knows that providing humanitarian support to people affected by conflict has been and still remains front and centre of the administration’s humanitarian interventions.
First, there is no question that to this day, people remain significantly impacted by Boko Haram. It will take probably many years before the impacts of the insurgency can be wiped off people’s faces in the BAY states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
In Yobe State the idea that the Abbari YBC camp in Damaturu was “among 445 displaced sites in the state” is totally not the case.
Abbari area has been in existence in the state capital for many years. But the area has expanded recently when people initially displaced by the Boko Haram conflict decided on their own to take residence in the area. It’s therefore not an IDP camp although people who were previously IDPs now live in the area.
The Buni administration does not have an unlimited war chest to attend to all the challenges that the Boko Haram insurgency has thrown up. But there is no question that within the limits of available resources – and the support of development partners – the administration continues to do well in offering succour and support to those most in need not only in Abbari and other areas where former IDPs live but in all nooks and crannies of the state. I believe this will remain the case to the end of the administration’s term in office.
Ali Musa Yawale wrote from Damaturu
