Hunger threatens 3,000 residents of liberated Borno community

Internally Displaced Persons.

Kayode Idowu, Maiduguri

About 3,000 residents of Rann, the headquarters of the Kala Balge Local Government Area of Borno State, now face different challenges as they now live without food, water and shelter in the newly-liberated community and its environs.

Some of the indigenes of the area, who spoke to journalists in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Thursday, said after the Nigerian troops sacked the Boko Haram insurgents from the area about a week ago, aid workers had not been seen in the community.

They added that residents of the community, which shares border with Cameroon and is about 200 kilometres from Maiduguri, now faced untold hardship.

One of those who spoke to journalists on condition of anonymity, said mostly affected were women and children, who survived the onslaught in the area and had taken refuge at Rann in the Kala-Balge LGA.

He alleged that officials of the National Emergency Management Agency and the Borno State Emergency Management Agency had not been seen in the area to render any humanitarian assistance.

The Borno State Commissioner for Local Government and Emirate Affairs, Mr. Usman Zannah, who expressed concern over the plight of the residents of the newly-liberated place, gave the assurance that the state government was taking measures to address the problems of the trapped citizens in Kala-Balge.

Zannah added, “We just received a message that more than 3,000 people, mostly women and children, are stranded after the liberation of Kala-Balge and other surrounding villages. We have started mobilising people, including security operatives, SEMA officials and members of the civilian JTF, to deliver relief materials to those victims as soon as possible.”

The Information Officer of NEMA, Mallam Abdulkadir Ibrahim, who also responded to journalists’ enquiries on the fate of the people of Kala-Balge, said necessary arrangement and assessment had been put in place by the agency to render humanitarian assistance to the displaced persons.

“We have received the report that over 3,000 IDPs are at some of our satellite camps in Kala-Balge, and we have finished the assessment process, and very soon, we will reach out to them,” he promised.

The Nigerian troops, in a major onslaught against the insurgents penultimate Tuesday, cleared the area of the remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists.

The troops were said to have killed about 22 suspected terrorists and cleared pockets of the terror sect’s members in Wumbi, Tunish, Tilem and Malawaji, Makaudari, Daima, Buduli, Sadigumo, Jiwe, Sidigeri and Kala villages.