Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno State has directed the immediate closure of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Bama, the largest outside Maiduguri, citing improved security and rising criminality within the facilities.
Announcing the decision on Thursday during an assessment visit to the Gwoza IDP camp, Zulum revealed that the Bama camp would shut down by noon, while the Gwoza camp is expected to close within two to three weeks.
“We visited Bama yesterday and supervised the screening of IDPs, and by 12 noon, Bama IDP camp should be closed. Today we are here in Gwoza, we have profiled all of them, and Insha Allah, in the next two or three weeks this camp will also be closed,” the governor stated.
Zulum explained that the closures were made possible by the relative peace now prevailing in communities once under Boko Haram control. Over the past seven years, the state government has resettled several towns in Bama Local Government Area, including Darajamal, Nguro Soye, Goniri, Banki, Abbaram, Ngoshe, Kirawa, and Warabe.
However, he raised concerns about the growing criminality in IDP camps, warning that Boko Haram and ISWAP elements were infiltrating the facilities. He also condemned the trend of residents abandoning their homes to pose as displaced persons in order to collect relief materials from NGOs
.“In our camps now, there is ongoing criminality. We have identified all of them, and they’ll be resettled based on their localities and community heads. Otherwise, Boko Haram/ISWAP are gradually infiltrating the camps,” Zulum said.
The governor stressed that the government could no longer sustain the camps under such circumstances, noting that fake IDPs had been uncovered during screening.
He added that several other camps across the state would be closed before the end of his tenure.“One year ago, this was almost a ghost camp with not more than about 400 households.
It is surprising that about 3,000 households are back in the camp, and most of them are residents living within the town,” he remarked.
Zulum assured that the resettlement process would be sustainable, reaffirming his administration’s commitment to security and community rebuilding.
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