Boko Haram: 700 Refeeges From Gwoza Flee to Nasarawa

                                       

About 700 displaced persons from Gwoza, Chibok, Bama in Borno State  and its environs have fled to Kwubaru village, in Karu Local Government of Nasarawa State.

The refugees who include men, women and children are divided into three different camps of Kwubaru, Angwar Jama’a and Takwa. They have been relocating to the village since March this year, in a bid to flee the troubled North-eastern part of the country.

Since their arrival, the no government agency has acknowledged their presence or sent relive materials.  They have had to survive on contributions from well meaning Nigerians and hand me downs from their host community.

The only recognition accorded to them by the government according to their leaders   was when they arrived and soldiers came in trucks and Hilux vans to harass them and arrest the Chief of Kwubaru for harbouring them.

In the Kwubaru camp for example, women and children are the only ones that sleep in any one of the nine mud houses and they can be as many as 12 people or more in one room while the men sleep on sacks and mats outside even under the rain.

Members of the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) advocacy visited the camp on a humanitarian visit to confirm the existence of internally displaced persons close to Abuja and donate  relieve materials which included foodstuffs, clothing, blankets and  mattresses

Leader of the refugees and former Headmaster of Ghwaa primary school, Gwoza, Mallam Yohanna Wurawa explained that he  escaped Gwoza with his family after his house and school was burnt down to the refugee camp in Cameroon.

Eventually, he said, his family and a few others were assisted by the Stephanus foundation to Kwabaru.

Leader of the BBOG Hajia Saudatu Mahdi said that the group had visited the refugees  as part of their humanitarian effort and to establish the fact that there is truly Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) since the government denied knowledge of them.

Saudatu promised that they group will write to National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons  to notify them of the presence of the refugees  and the need to come to their assistance immediately.