‘Our homes, farms unsafe’ — Borno IDPs lament ‘forceful eviction’ from camps

BY IMRAN RIDWAN

Once spacious land with uncompleted buildings, surrounded by trees and shrubs — where animals lived and pillowed in the Dalori community in Borno state — now serves as a temporary shelter for internally displaced persons (IDPs) fleeing from the Boko Haram insurgency.

Male Mala, 50, said he could not return to his village because things had fallen apart and it was unsafe to live there.

“Where will I start from? My village is not secure, and I have no source of income to feed my wives and eight children. Where we are now was given to us by the owner for shelter,” Mala lamented.

“We are now living a miserable life, homeless, and without any hope since we were forcefully chased out of the camp. Since morning, I have been sitting at the same spot, depressed and confused.

“I have no idea what to do that will earn me money. It could have been a different thing if I had been sheltered. I could have gone back to farming. How I wish our villages were safe for us to live.”

Similarly, Iyagana Alhadiza, 48, was not sure which was better for her: going to a home where life is not assured and could be slaughtered like an animal or accepting the fate of his newfound home in a bizarre environment.

“I was more comfortable at the camp,” she said. “I had a job there; I plaited hair and earned money. My children had more freedom and access to Arabic education, which I paid for every month.”

Now that they have been chased out of Dalori Camp, Alhadiza has become jobless.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner’s report, titled ‘Violations and abuses committed by Boko Haram and the impact on human rights in the countries affected’, Borno state is the most affected by the conflict, and most of its displaced people have fled to internally displaced persons (IDP) camps across the state, seeking safety and depending on agencies for food and livelihood support.

But in 2022, the Borno state government began closing informal IDP camps in the state and evicting the inhabitants with promises of resettling over two million of them.

The “forced” eviction of the IDPs violates international humanitarian laws like the Kampala Convention on IDPs. Nigeria is one of the signatories of the charter.

According to the Kampala Convention, internally displaced persons have the right “to be protected against forcible return to or resettlement in any place where their life, safety, liberty and/or health would be at risk.”

According to the convention, the government is obligated to consult with and ensure the participation of internally displaced persons in the planning and management of their return, resettlement, or integration, enabling displaced people to “make a free and informed choice” regarding these processes.

The Kampala Convention specifically obligates the government to seek lasting or durable solutions to the problem of displacement by promoting and creating satisfactory conditions for voluntary return, local integration, or relocation on a sustainable basis and in circumstances of safety and dignity.

‘HOW DO WE SURVIVE?’

During a visit to the host community in May, many of the IDPs were living in an uncompleted building, others on open lands that belonged to other people.

Neither the government nor non-governmental organisations are rendering humanitarian services to them.

The IDPs struggle to access necessities such as food, water, healthcare, and education. They have also lost the means to engage in farming as they used to before their displacement.

Bulama Musa, the host community head at Dalori, said life has been unbearable for the IDPs since the government decided to close their camp without any arrangements for their livelihood.

Also, A’isha Babagana, 30, said since they have been staying in Dalori for over five years, the community members have been assisting them to survive.

“Our fear is the rainy season that is coming because when it’s raining, we will not be able to stay in our hut houses; erosion will not allow us,” she added.

Many are scared to leave the town, despite not being in a conducive environment. They set up shelters wherever they were accommodated. This has mounted pressure on Bintu Bukar, 70, a returnee from Gomboru.

Bintu said she thought the government would reconstruct their houses, which were destroyed by Boko Haram, but there were no houses rebuilt, and the environment is not safe.

“I have lost many of my family members, so what will I be doing here at my age?” she asked.

“If our villages were safe, even if the government reopened and built new houses in Dalori Camp, nobody would come. We would all go back to our communities.”

Karuba Mandar, 60, said: “Since we returned to our village, we have not been able to get a source of livelihood. We thought that the government had solved all the problems.”

“You see, we are not being taken care of. Our pride is farming, but we can’t even farm again because the environment is not safe for farming. Just last week, my grandson was killed on his way to the farm. The government has made us hopeless without doing anything about the situation. It was a flash of hope.

Aminu Bakari, a worker at the IDP camp, said the question now is how they will survive now that they are not in the camp, and the decision made by the government is not the best thing for the IDPs.

“They were displaced from their villages by Boko Haram, and now the government has chased them away without any preparation for their safety and livelihood. Some of them leave with the hope that they will be able to stay in their communities someday, while some of them stay in some host communities,” he said.

Bakari said that while in the camps, the IDPs lived solely on humanitarian support from NGOs. He wondered how they would get that support now that the government had chased them away.

Bukar Isah, another humanitarian worker, said the forceful eviction from camps without proper preparation by the government was against fundamental human rights and humanity.

“This is unconstitutional, and it’s against the Kampala Convention for a government to forcefully evict the IDPs from their camp without any preparation for safety or a source of livelihood,” he said.

“How can this issue of insurgency be something of the past when the IDPs are not properly taken care of? You shouldn’t be surprised that some of them may decide to join Boko Haram because they are hopeless and idle.”

However, in May, all efforts were made to reach out to Barkindo Saidu, the director-general of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), to speak on the condition of the IDPs and their “forced ejection” from the camps. He did not respond to phone calls and messages.