Insurgency: IDPs Now Free To Return To 3 Liberated Borno LGs – Army

SAN FRANCISCO, August 13, (THEWILL) – Displaced and fleeing residents of three out of the 20 local governments of Borno State recently liberated from Boko Haram insurgents are now free to return.

The Nigerian Army which disclosed this Thursday listed the three local governments as Konduga, Bama and Gwoza.

It also disclosed that as a preliminary step towards relocating the IDPs and building in them the necessary confidence to return, camps have been built in the towns with medical outreach to ensure free medical treatment to those affected by the insurgency.

Speaking with newsmen while conducting them round Konduga, one of the liberated town, where he visited the medical outreach established by the Nigerian Army in the town, the Commander of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army with headquarters in Maiduguri, Major General Lamidi Adeosun, said Maiduguri has been overstretched thus necessitating the need for the fleeing residents to return to their towns and villages.

Adeosun stressed the need for confidence building in the planned relocation, saying one of the ways to do this is by putting in place the needed infrastructure. He said this informed the decision of the Nigerian Army to establish medical outreach to take care of the health needs of the returning IDPs even as he disclosed that the medical outreach in Konduga has already treated about 1,000 IDPs from about 20 surrounding villages.

According to Adeosun, the medical outreach which was initially introduced in Maiduguri was extended to Konduga on Wednesday and will consequently be moved to other liberated towns to rebuild the confidence of the people of the areas to return home.

Explaining that that the exercise will last for three days in each of the IDPs camp where the areas have been liberated, Adeosun said the military are in the field to liberate the people as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a remark, the Medical Director of 7 Division, Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Ikechukwu Okeke, listed the major challenges so far experienced during the exercise to include malnutrition, stressing that most of the IDPs have signs of severe malnutrition.

Others, according to him, include lack of adequate medical facilities at the camps, though he noted that plans are underway for the provision of more medical facilities while serious cases are being referred to the State Specialist Hospital or University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital in Maiduguri.