Terrorism and FG’s humanitarian interventions in the North- East-Musa Ilallah

By solacebase.com On Aug 29, 2021

By Musa Ilallah

It is worth beginning this piece by looking at the evolution of Boko Haram, (Westernization Is Sacrilege) founded in 2002 by Muhammed Yusuf in Maiduguri, North-Eastern Nigeria. Since 2009 when Muhammad Yusuf was killed, the association carried out assassinations and large-scale acts of violence and vowed to avenge the deaths of Yusuf and other group members, who were pre-judiciary killed by security forces in 2009.

Boko Haram activities in Nigeria was as a matter of belief against Westernization and education, which it views as negatively impacting Islamic values. The group blames Western influences for Nigeria’s culture of corruption, which has contributed to a wide gap between the few rich and the many poor.

After the initial backlash suffered by Boko Haram arising from an incident in which group members were allegedly subjected to the excessive use of force by police and were unable to get an official investigation into the matter, the group launched attacks on police posts and other public assets, the resultant Joint Military Task Force operation left many Boko Haram members dead.

That was the trigger that has today resulted in the loss of thousands of lives on both sides- BH members on one side and security agents and civilians on the other-displacement of more than two million people and destruction of public, private and personal property in the six states of the North East region, comprising of Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa and Taraba.

Also not spared are some States like Kano, Katsina and Kaduna in the North West and FCT Abuja in the North Central.

Ever since then, the Federal Government of Nigeria had embarked on a massive intervention of humanitarian activities including the provision of foodstuff, clothes and temporary shelter to take care of displaced households and their families, particularly in Borno State.

The worst-hit areas are predominantly in Maiduguri and the Southern part of Borno. Such black spots are Moguno, Damboa, Gwoza, Chibok and the Lake Chad axis, among others.

Hundreds of billions of Naira have to date been spent in making the displaced persons’ lives better.

It is on record that the operational bases of the insurgents in Borno state are darkest spots operated by late Abubakar Shekau, a factional leader of the sect operating from the Chibok axis while the Mamman Nur’s group operates from the Lake Chad axis.

The worst hit by the activities of insurgents is Baga town, since the early days of insurgency in the country.

The humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s north-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe called BAY states is expected to persist unabated as the continuing conflict will severely affect millions of people, thus subjecting them to displacement, impoverishment and threat of violence.

Some 1.92 million people are displaced internally, and 257,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The majority, 54% of the internally displaced people have found refuge in host communities. Borno State has 81% of the IDPs.

The prospects for displaced people’s safe return to their areas of origin are tenuous, though some areas of origin are conducive for return, or could be made conducive because they are relatively safe and accessible to humanitarian actors, generally more so in Yobe and Adamawa States than in Borno.

Borno State Government had started facilitating IDPs return to their local government areas of origin with the ultimate aim of relocating all IDPs from Maiduguri by May 2021.

Despite the humanitarian communities’ expression of concerns about the safety of returnees, the Federal and Borno State governments have put in place full proof safety measures in all towns getting back returnees as displaced persons or refugees from Cameroon and the Niger Republic.

The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA on its part has severally provided food assistance to 2.7 million IDPs in Borno from January-December of 2020. This is in addition to its monthly intervention to all the States in the North East since the insurgency began in the country.

Records show that NEMA distributes foods items monthly to 228,000 IDPs in 20 camps, host communities and liberated areas in Borno State as food assistance to IDPs which has greatly supported them in mitigating food crisis in the camps.

Also worth mentioning is the continuous humanitarian intervention offered to IDPs in the North-East by the National Refugees Commission over the years.

In 2018, the then Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed had said that the Federal Government and the six North-east States spent $6.4 billion on interventions in the region between 2016 and 2017.

Also, $3.1 billion was budgeted in 2018.

The minister who disclosed this at the launching of the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan, HRP, for North-east Nigeria in Abuja explained that the HRP being launched was in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s Plan and the United Nations Development Partnership Framework.

In the words of the Minister, the Nigerian government would ensure that the 2018 HRP is supported and aligned with the humanitarian and development strategies as captured in the Nigerian Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP.

While appreciating all international donors and humanitarian partners for their interventions in addressing the North East crises, Mrs Ahmad appealed for more resources to meet the immediate needs of the nearly 7.7 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance in the area.

The Federal Government has stated that its focus now is on quality response in the region towards reconstruction.

Edward Kallon, the then UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria had said that the 2018 HRP has demonstrated the commitment of the International Community to the people of Nigeria and then pledged the continued partnership between the International humanitarian committee and the Government of Nigeria.

In the government’s effort to further support IDPs, PMB set up a committee headed by Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, a retired lieutenant general to rehabilitate infrastructure and resettle all IDPs in the North-East sub-region.

Also, Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group had pledged to construct The Dangote Village in Borno state. It is a self-sufficient set of 200 housing units worth N2 billion, with a school, hospital, irrigation farms and poultry farms, among others.

According to the foundation, the gesture would enable its occupants to eke out a living, even as Dangote gave each of the beneficiaries N100,000 to start a new life in June 2018.

In addition, Dangote had donated about N7 billion to support displaced persons affected by Boko Haram terrorists in the Northeast. Furthermore, Dangote also promised that the Dangote Foundation would take care of teachers’ emolument for five years and share in the educational revolution of the then Governor Kashim Shettima.

It is public knowledge that the taking of lives of innocent souls up to more than 1, 000 and displacement of hundreds of people in Baga and its take over and conversion as an Islamic state by Boko Haram in 2015 opened the door for the serious need to offer humanitarian intervention by the Federal and State governments to the people affected.

Baga’s strategic economic and social position in the North East in particular and all of Northern Nigeria, in general, is well known up to Niger, Cameroun, Chad and the Central African republic. The Fishmarket in Baga is undoubtedly the first of its kind in the West African sub-region.

The prolonged insurgency has regrettably however led to a dramatic decline in the abundance of artisanal fishermen in the region. Fishing communities along the Lake Chad basin have suffered an exodus of fishermen and fish traders to presumably safer havens within and outside the country.

Consequently, there has been a general decline in fish abundance and artisanal fishing in the region, following an overall decline with a yearly pattern prevalent in 2015, 2016 and 2017, according to fish merchants in the area.

An analysis by Cadre Harmonisé, CH which is the unified tool for consensual analysis of acute food and nutrition insecurity in the Sahel and West African region. indicates that as at June-August of 2019, more than 2.9 million people in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe faced a crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity thus required urgent food assistance. However, the Federal and State Governments at the National and States levels promptly acted to the danger through a massive intervention of food items to both displaced and non-displaced Nigerians in the states.

Compounding the challenges facing Baga town and its inhabitants include the shrinking of the Lake Chad basin to less than 10 per cent of its original size due to climatic conditions and human destructive activities at upstream,

In its tribute on the return of normalcy to the famous Baga town and its international fish market at Doron Baga, the Buhari Media Organisation, BMO described the return of 1,200 displaced residents of the famous fishing community as a major milestone in the ongoing war against insurgency.

This, according to BMO, is because the town was at the epicentre of Boko Haram insurgency activities since 2013 when at least 185 people were killed and over 2000 homes destroyed by the terror group.

A statement signed by BMO’s Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, BMO said that the return of Baga residents is a clear sign of the gradual return to normalcy which is attributable to PMB’s proactive humanitarian and security approaches to governance.

“Any keen observer of the Boko Haram insurgency can easily recall that the fishing community located close to the shores of the Lake Chad had for years witnessed at least two massacres at the height of the insurgency.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the town which lost 3,100 structures in the 2015 massacre, according to Amnesty International, has now had its homes and public institutions rebuilt. It has also been confirmed that fishing activities are back in the community that once housed one of the largest fish markets in Northern Nigeria.

Governor Zulum deserves special commendation for the infusion of cash into the community by handing out N10,000 each to 716 women and 486 men, aside from bags of food items and clothing.

A lot is therefore being done by the PMB administration in conjunction with the Borno State Government, foreign governments, UN and its agencies, other humanitarian actors, groups, individuals and corporate entities to improve the lives of IDPs and help them return to their homes.

Ilallah, a public commentator writes from Abuja.