More than 100,000 Nigerians killed by Boko Haram- Shettima
Over 100,000 Nigerians have been killed by the terrorist group, Boko Haram in the past seven years, with more than two million displaced.
Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima who gave the figure in a forum on Monday said the deaths occurred since the insurgency began in 2009.
“The Boko Haram insurgency has led to deaths of almost 100,000 persons going by the estimates of our community leaders over the years,” he said.
“Two million, one hundred and fourteen thousand (2,114,000) persons have become internally displaced as at December of 2016, with five hundred and thirty seven thousand, eight hundred and fifteen (537,815) in separate camps; 158,201 are at official camps that consists of six centres with two transit camps at Muna and Customs House, both in Maiduguri.
“There are 379,614 IDP’S at 15 satellite camps comprising Ngala, Monguno, Bama, Banki, Pulka, Gwoza, Sabon Gari and other locations in the state. 73,404 persons were forced to become refugees in neighbouring countries with Niger having 11,402 and Cameroon having 62,002.
“We have an official record of 52,311 orphans who are separated and unaccompanied. We have 54,911 widows who have lost their husbands to the insurgency and about 9,012 have returned back to various communities of Ngala, Monguno, Damboa, Gwoza and Dikwa,” the governor said
Shettima also defended the decision of his administration to close all IDPs’ camps in Borno State by May 2017, stressing that their continuous existence poses threat to the state.
“The IDP camps that we have right now are pregnant with lots of challenges. Early child marriages, child prostitution, drug abuse (and) gangsterism are very common in those IDP camps.
“If we allow them to pester (and) to continue existing for the next two years, we might have bigger problems at hand,” Shettima said. (tv360)
