Borno Govt, VSF Resettle Over 100,000 IDPs

Victims Support Fund (VSF) in collaboration with the Borno State government have resettled 11,765 households comprising 100,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs ) at Gubio Camp back to their ancestral homes.

The resettlement of the IDPs marked the closing of the Gubio IDPs camp as part of the Borno State government’s drive to close down all IDPs camps in Maiduguri.

Speaking at the Gubio IDPs camp yesterday in Maiduguri during the resettlement , the vice chairman of VSF, air vice marshal (rtd ) Lawal Alao said the resettled IDPs would be returning back to their home with each head of household receiving N100,000 , mattress, cooking utensils and other implements that they will use to go and restart their livelihood.

Alao added that the resettlement programme is sustainable in the sense that VSF has a programme that would run for the next three years where it would go through various communities and support the returnees in four key areas in rebuilding their livelihoods such as educational support, activities such as peace building among the communities and psychosocial support in terms of post traumatic stress disorder.

“A lot of them have gone through a lot in terms of mental health. So we would work with appropriate partners to ensure that we give them necessary support to come back and regain their mental health.,” Alao said.

In his remarks, Borno State deputy governor, Usman Umar Kadafur, said the state government is gradually achieving its target of closing IDPs camps in Maiduguri.

He thanked VSF and other partners for making the recovery and resettlement programme of the Borno State government seamless.

He called on the returning IDPs to be law-abiding and vigilant, and to report any strange movements to the security agencies.

Ramatu Mohammed who is among the returnees alongside her eight children thanked the VSF and Borno State government for returning them back to their ancestral homes.