The chairman of board of trustees of Gwoza Christian Communities, Williams Naga, said on Tuesday that about 77, 000 persons have been displaced from Gwoza local government area of Borno state by insurgents.

It would be recalled that Gwoza, a hilly town in southern Borno was captured by the terrorist group about four months ago.

Presenting food items donated by the state government to the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in Maiduguri, Naga said there are 16, 000 residents of Gwoza town spread across various camps in the state, while over 46,000 displaced persons are currently taking refuge in nine different villages while 15,000 other are staying in camps created by government outside the state capital, Maiduguri.

He said Governor Kashim Shettima had donated N10 million for the up keep of the IDPS in the state capital and N2 million to facilitate the transportation of those in Cameroon.

Also speaking, Haruna Amodu, the distribution committee chairman said out of the N10 million donated, N6 million was spent on the  procurement of food stuff for the IDPs.

Amodu said that apart from the government’s assistance, the former religious affairs commissioner, Mamman Durkwa, personally donated 100 bags of rice and four cows to ameliorate the hardship of the IDPS.

Gwoza, a border town about 135 kilometres south-east of Maiduguri with an original population of 276,312, going by the 2006 census, has become vulnerable for terrorist attacks as a result of its natural geographic design.

The area which is rocky and hilly, with a height of about 1300m above sea level is made up of ranges of mountains such as the Mandara Mountains, which form a natural barrier between Nigeria and Cameroon, starting from Pulka.

The town has been referred to as a notorious hide out for the Boko Haram insurgents, who arrived in the area in 2009 from Maiduguri and has suffered considerable violence, with an increased record in 2014.