Crystabel Ukwuegbu
The governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, visited the Muna refugee camp on Monday and revealed that the camp will be shut down in the coming weeks.
Since 2021, the Borno state government has already shut down 17 other refugee camps around Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, which has long been a central hub of jihadist violence in Nigeria.
The closuring of the Muna camp had been postponed due to flooding that affected Borno State last September. Governor Zulum emphasized that rising crime rates within the camp had made the closure urgent.
Muna was the largest displaced persons camp in the region, with over 10,000 families recorded in early 2024. In the last 15 years, refugee camps in Borno have hosted more than 80 percent of the 2 million people displaced by the conflict going on between the Nigerian military and the Boko Haram jihadist group.
To facilitate the return of the displaced, authorities provide financial assistance ranging from €20 to €50, either for them to return to their original homes or relocate to designated safe zones.
However, human rights organizations have criticized the government for offering inadequate support to help families rebuild their lives with dignity.
In a 2022 press statement, Anietie Ewang, a Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch, stated, “The Borno State government is putting hundreds of thousands of displaced individuals in even more vulnerable situations to push forward a questionable development agenda aimed at reducing dependency on humanitarian aid.”
She continued, “By forcibly removing people from camps without providing viable alternatives for their well-being, the government is exacerbating their suffering and increasing their vulnerability.”
The northeastern region of Nigeria has seen a recent uptick in violence, with two jihadist attacks claiming nearly 50 lives in late April and another attack in January that left at least 40 farmers dead.
