Thousands of Nigerians displaced from Gwoza, Borno State, as a result of the activities of Boko Haram terrorists have founded a new town in neighbouring Adamawa State. It is called Daware and located in Fofure Local Government Area. There are indications that many of these displaced persons may never return to their original homes.

Gwoza, a vast local government, has been consistently under attack since April this year when members of the Boko Haram sect fleeing from Sambisa Forest moved into their towns on motorcycles.

On May 30, the traditional ruler, the Emir of Gwoza, Idrissa Timta, was killed after his abduction along with the Emir of Uba, Ismaila Mamza, by armed men, in Hawul LGA on their way to attend the funeral of the Emir of Gombe, Alhaji Shehu Abubakar.

And during the second week of August, the a son of Timta who was installed after his father’s murder ran away from the town after the terrorists finally overran the town, sacking the Police Mobile Unit Training School and declaring it headquarters of their newly founded Caliphate.

A village head in Gwoza, Alhaji Idrissa Lawan, who is now a resident of Dawari following his displacement, told our correspondent in an interview that majority of those who fled to Daware are no longer thinking of returning to their original homes.

Lawan told PRNigeria and members of Journalists Against Disaster Initiative (JADI) on a mission to evaluate the condition of internally displaced persons in Adamawa State that a resident of Gwoza who fled to Dawari settled down and after a month, returned home. On his way back to his new place of abode, about 300 others followed him and the population has swelled to over 3,000 since then, Alhaji Lawan stated.

Although Daware had existed as a hamlet before now, the over 3,000 fleeing residents of Gwoza and its environs have now turned it into a bigger village.

Officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Adamawa State Government only recently discovered the now sprawling community located off Yola-Mubi highway following the invasion of Mubi by the terrorists, necessitating a search to discover where residents fled to.

The condition given for their stay in Daware was that no temporary tents would be erected as the new residents have been allotted both farm and building plots to begin normal life but NEMA has continued to support the IDPs with essential food and non-food relief items.

The team also visited the temporary IDPs camp at Nyako Housing Estate in Yola, NYSC Permanent Orientation IDP Camp and and Malkohi where those camped in Nyako IDPs camp have now been moved to.

NEMA has said that some of the common challenges affecting the smooth operations in the four IDP camps in Adamawa State have been identified, giving the total number of IDPs as 12,000.

The tour, which was led by NEMA Director General, Muhammad Sani-Sidi, had representatives of United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and JADI.

Sani-Sidi told the IDPs that a new approach would now be applied to address the challenges aimed at making life more meaningful for the displaced persons in the camps. He ordered immediate additional supply of mattresses to replace those already carted away by displaced persons who had left the camps.

The NEMA boss also warned against shoddy treatment of people with ailments and approved special packages for voluntary teachers to improve the teaching of IDP children currently in the camps.

He noted that the issue of displaced persons is causing great concern to the Federal Government and citizens of the country, but gave an assurance that all necessary steps would be taken to address them including flushing out insurgents from their hideouts.

•Adapted from a PRNigeria report. Photo shows NEMA DG Sani-Sidi.

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