BEVERLY HILLS, CA, July 21, (THEWILL) – No fewer than 15,204 persons have been displaced in the Southern Borno town of Damboa as a result of weekend’s attack on the town by Boko Haram.
The Boko Haram insurgents who had laid siege to the strategic Borno town successfully took over the town on Saturday, hoisting its flag and declaring it a conquered territory.
The Northeast Information Officer of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), AbdulKadir Ibrahim National, who gave out the figure Monday while speaking with journalists in Maiduguri, the state capital, said the internally displaced persons are presently seeking refuge in Biu, Maiduguri, both in Borno State and Goniri in Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe State.
He disclosed that the number of displaced persons in Biu as at Monday stood at 10,204 while 3,000 are in Maiduguri and 2,000 in Goniri.
Ibrahim however clarified that the displaced persons were not only from Damboa but from other surrounding communities of Kimba, Madaragrau, Mandafuma, Chikwar Kir, Bomburatai and Sabon Kwatta as well.
While maintaining that the agency had concluded plan to take relief materials to the displaced persons, Ibrahim said “NEMA is going for camp management in the aforementioned locations to cater for the needs of the IDPs.”
He also disclosed that the initial assessment indicated that the IDPs require basic household items, including plates, spoons, towels, cups, clothing, beddings, food items, blankets, mosquito nets and sanitary pads, stressing that the new IDPs have added up the initial figure of 149,903 persons that NEMA have had to attend to in the last seven months.
He added that the NEMA Director General, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Sidi, had to jettison his plan of travelling to Saudi Arabia for the lesser hajj in order to supervise efforts at addressing the mass exodus and emerging humanitarian crisis which the conquest of Damboa by Boko Haram has caused.
The conquest of Damboa has however led to mass exodus as thousands of residents of the town were seen Monday fleeing towards Uba town and other neighbouring areas .
“Thousands of our people are running in all directions and over 1,000 people fled in the direction of Uba to seek solace,” a local source said, adding “There are only pockets of people in Damboa now, mainly elderly people , and those that have decided to pay allegiance to the insurgents.”
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