Nigeria: Over 3,600 IDPs return to liberated communities

More than 600 households comprising of over 3600 people earlier displaced by the Boko Haram crisis in a Yobe State have returned to their liberated Communities.



Yobe State has over 300,000 IDPs scattered across the state, including about 28,000 living in IDPs camps.
Our correspondent who visited some of the liberated towns observed  that life has  picked up in Katarko and Gujba communities hitherto taken over by Boko Haram.
With the return of the IDPs, Yobe State Government through the Resettlement Committee has embarked on the provision of food relief materials and the restoration of basic amenities like water and food with two sub-committees putting the issues in the frontline.

The sub-committee on the restoration of water to the liberated communities headed by the General Manager of the State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Bukar Lawan has so far resuscitated three boreholes in the two communities of Kartarko and Gujba with additional ones coming on stream in Buni Yadi, Buni Gari, Gotala, Gotomba etc.
In the same vein, the sub-committee on distribution of relief materials headed by the Hon. Commissioner for Home Affairs Information and Culture Aji Yerima Bularafa over the weekend took four truck load of assorted food and none food relief materials to the returnees of the two communities.

The  food items distributed include; rice, beans, millet, maize, noddles and vegetable oil while the non food items were; blankets, mats and bathing soap.
The items were handed over  to the Village Heads of the two communities by Aji Bularafa charge them to ensure that every returning IDP gets a share from the materials.

He assured them of the commitment of the Yobe State Government to continue to provide succor to them as they pick up the pieces of their lives.

In his remarks, the Chairman of Gujba Local Government Kyari Batrama expressed happiness that his people have started returning to their ancestral communities to re-start their normal lives.
He called on the Federal Government to assist Yobe state in bringing back some of the essential amenities like the health facilities, schools, electricity and water that were destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgents.

The Executive Secretary of Yobe  State Emergency Management Agency Musa Idi Jidawa called on donor agencies and spirited Individuals to partner with SEMA in order to bring succor to the distraught IDPs returning back to their communities.
According to him, “the job must be seen done to the finish”, adding that: “The donors, NGOs and our partners have worked tirelessly to keep these people afloat throughout the difficult times they were displaced. It is therefore important to point out that this last stage of resettlement is very crucial I the life of these people and so the job must be seen done to the finish.”