About 400,000 persons have been internally displaced in the terrorism ravaged North eastern zone in Nigeria this year alone, an official of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has said.
The information officer of the Northeast zonal office of the agency, AbdulKadir Ibrahim, said the number of internally displaced persons, IDPs, between January and July in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, all under emergency rule is 360,462.
Ibrahim however, noted that with last week’s attack on Gwoza and Doron-Baga the figure is expected to reach 400,000.
Giving a state-by-state analysis of the figure, Ibrahim said Borno state alone had 183,031 IDPs, Adamawa 147,198 and Yobe 30,233.
The spokesman noted that the number of IDPs have exceeded the capacity of the agency and that it has had to train volunteers and emergency management vanguards who work with the Red Cross to set up camps and to register internally displaced persons in different parts of the region.
He revealed that those recently displaced as a result of the capture of Gwoza by the insurgents are now in camps in Madagali, Adamawa State and Uba in Borno State. Others have fled to neighbouring Cameroun.
Ibrahim said those displaced by last Sunday’s insurgency attack on Doron-Baga are being accommodated at Central Primary School, Baga.