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Abuja — A north-east Nigerian state, the worst hit in the country by the Boko Haram insurgency, needs greater international assistance for rebuilding as it faces funding issues and a food crisis, its governor said on Tuesday.
Borno state governor Kashim Shettima said “we need the whole world to rally round us” to help peace-building, rehabilitation and reconstruction after nearly seven years of violence.
A report for the World Bank has said some 20,000 people from Borno have been killed in the Islamist insurgency and put the cost of the destruction in the state at $5.9 billion.
The World Bank has set aside $800m to support rebuilding, as well as other programmes such as de-mining and waste management, Shettima told a conference on reconstruction in Abuja.
“But . . . $800m is a drop in the ocean in a state that has lost almost $6 billion as a result of the insurgency,” he added.
“We need far more support from our international partners to be able to complete the rebuilding of our communities.”
“Monumental infrastructure and economic losses” have hit homes, schools, government buildings, water sources, power and telecommunications networks, he added.
But Shettima said those who have fled the violence were still affected, even as Nigeria’s military regains control of captured territory and reduces the rebels’ ability to mount attacks.
Around 2.0 million of the estimated 2.6 million displaced have remained in Nigeria. Most are in living in host communities, with about ten percent in specially designated camps.
Many of the camps are located in and around the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, with others across the state to cater for those who have returned to their home towns.
The governor said there was a “crisis of feeding” and that 1,800,50kg bags of rice were required every day for around 381,000 IDPs, not including other ingredients for a nutritious diet.
International aid organisations and the Nigerian government in Abuja were helping, as financial constraints have left the state authorities unable to act alone, he said.
Nigeria, Africa’s leading oil producer, has seen revenues reduced drastically by the decrease in global oil prices since mid-2014, affecting funding to state governments.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram has been forced to produce its own fuel to power its motorbikes because of an acute petrol shortage caused by a military squeeze on supply lines.
A senior military source said the Islamists were paying huge sums of money for jerrycans of fuel while a woman who recently escaped from the group said they were making groundnut oil into biodiesel.
“Boko Haram were paying outrageous sums to get fuel and the incredible profit margin made young men defy the risk and take fuel to them,” said the source in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
“The cutting off of fuel supplies has badly crippled Boko Haram and that has been made possible by blocking all identified supply routes and the crackdown on the suppliers,” he said
Fuel vendors seeking to exploit the group’s need for fuel could sell each 25-litre jerrycan for 50,000 to 70,000 naira ($250-$350) each, said escapee Ya-Mairam Ya-Malaye.
A jerrycan of fuel in Maiduguri costs only $13.
But the risk of being caught up in a military aerial bombardment on Boko Haram positions has forced the vendors to stay away, said the security source.
Previous reports have indicated the rebels are also running low on food.
Nigeria and its neighbours Cameroon, Chad and Niger began a concerted fight-back against Boko Haram in January last year, recapturing territory lost to the militants the previous year.
President Muhammadu Buhari has said the rebels, can no longer fight conventional warfare.
Instead of its trademark hit-and-run attacks using pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, the insurgents have even mounted strikes on remote villages on horseback, bicycles or on foot. — AFP
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