Displaced Baga residents flood Maiduguri refugee camps

Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, has continued to witness an upsurge in the number of Internally Displaced Persons as scores of people, who fled Baga and adjoining communities, which fell to the Boko Haram militants over the weekend, streamed to the refugee camps in the state  capital.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday on the latest influx of the displaced persons, the Information Officer of the National Emergency Management Agency in the North-East, Mallam AbdulKadir Ibrahim, said the agency had registered people that fled Monguno, Doron-Baga and other communities close to Baga, which had been captured by the Boko Haram insurgents.

Ibrahim said the latest figure of registered IDPs showed that many of them fled from Monguno, Doron-Baga and other communities near Baga,

The NEMA spokesman added that the agency had registered 1,636 people who fled Baga and its environs to Maiduguri.

The breakdown shows that 1,172 are males and 464 were females.

Ibrahim said NEMA, in conjunction with the State Emergency Management Agency and other stakeholders had provided the displaced persons with bedding and other items.

“Those that are sick have been given medical attention while all the stakeholders in emergency management are doing what they can to attend to the need of the people,” the NEMA information officer added.

He explained that majority of the people that fled the Baga’s attack migrated fled to Chad, adding that the agency was currently planning to evacuate them to the country.

Ibrahim said, “Recently, NEMA team was dispatched to Chad, Cameroon and Niger to ascertain the number of Nigerians displaced and are in these countries. Those who are willing to come back will be evacuated to Nigeria with the assistance of the host countries.”

Some of the fleeing residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed that the insurgents killed many soldiers during the attack on Baga.

In a BBC Hausa Service news monitored in Maiduguri, a soldier, who craved anonymity, said the troop were caught unawares and lacked ammunition.