FG feeds ex-Boko Haram terrorists, as IDPs go hungry

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has supplied food items and other materials to about 800 former Boko Haram terrorists who have denounced their membership of the group.

According to the agency, the repentant insurgents are presently undergoing rehabilitation and de-radicalisation programmes in a military-controlled camp facility known as Safe Corridor in Gombe state.

This is amid reports of undernourishment of refugees in Internally Displaced Persons Camps (IDPs) in different parts of the country.

Doctors Without Borders- (Médecins Sans Frontières), MSF, had recently published pictures with a statement on the poor state of conditions in some of the camps.

The director general of NEMA, Muhammad Sani Sidi, who led other officials to present food and non-food items to the former terrorists, stated that the presentation would be given every three months.

The statement which was signed by Sani Datti, NEMA spokesman, reveals the items to include, “410 bags of rice, 400 bags of beans, 200 bags of millet, 200 bags of sorghum, 750 cartons of spaghetti, 50 cartons of Maggi cubes and 810 cartons tomato paste. Others are 101 Vegetable oil in 20 liter kegs, 101 palm oil in 20 liter kegs, 50 bags of
salt, 100 bags of sugar, 420 cartons of milk and 420 cartons of Milo chocolate.

Read also: Army pays off suspected Boko Haram suspects with $10

“The non-food items include; 800 pieces of mattress, 500 hundred pieces of blanket, 500 pieces of nylon mats, 1000 plastic buckets, 1000 plastic spoons, 1000 plastic cups 1000, plastics plates, 1000 plastic pairs of slippers, 2000 men’s wear, 63 cartons of bath soap and 1000 bath towels,” said Mr. Datti.

“The food and non-food items were presented to the military for Operation Safe Corridor Programme meant to de-radicalize, rehabilitate and re-integrate eight hundred (800) repented and surrendered Boko Haram insurgents to fast track peace process in the North East.

In the statement, NEMA director general said; “The initiative, which is in line with international best practices allowed those engaged in the fighting to voluntarily surrender and embrace peace so that they undergo rehabilitation’’.

Boko Haram reportedly killed over 20, 000 Nigerians, rendered millions homeless and destroyed several millions of naira worth of properties.

By Ebere Ndukwu …

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