By Kieran Guilbert
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Feb 7 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A lmost two years after Boko Haram militants attacked his hometown in northeast Nigeria, killed his neighbours and forced his family to flee to safety, Ibrahim Usman faces a dilemma.
Either he, his wife and five children stay in their makeshift shelter in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, and risk starvation, or they return home to a town reduced to rubble, and the threat of further violence from the jihadists.
“The situation for the displaced here is so desperate that some people will go back even if their village is not safe, even if there is a risk of being killed,” he said, walking through a maze of flimsy huts packed together on a small plot of land.
Boko Haram’s seven-year bid to create an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria has uprooted 1.8 million people – three in four of whom are residing in local communities, rather than in camps – says the International Organization for Migration.
This has fuelled tensions and piled pressure on services and infrastructure – from schools and clinics to toilets – in these stretched communities, leaving people increasingly dependent on dwindling aid in a region where food and shelter are scarce.
Amid the strain, more than 90 percent of the displaced are considering going home as Nigeria’s army retakes control of more areas held by Boko Haram, said the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR).
Aid agencies now face a double challenge: to think beyond traditional aid and find ways to help host communities cope with the ongoing pressure on their resources; and to assist the displaced planning to rebuild their lives back home.
The needs are huge on both fronts – from providing people with skills and jobs, to restarting agriculture and markets – in a region where long-term development and resilience-building efforts have been limited, aid experts told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“It is clear that humanitarian handouts will not solve problems for that many people,” said Lucky Musonda, spokesman for the United Nations Development Programme.
“Resilience is kicking in now but it is just the beginning,” Musonda added. “It helps preserve hope for the future… that people can have better lives than they did before the crisis.”
