Military operations resettled over one million households in Borno – Theater Commander

Over a million households have been resettled in their ancestral homes in Borno State due to the ongoing stabilisation operations by the military, the Theater Commander Operation Hadin Kai, Major General Abdulsalami Abubakar, has said.

General Abubakar said this while giving an update on the military’s successes during a media tour organised by Defence Headquarters (DHQ) for Defence Correspondents to Maiduguri.

The communities resettled in the operation, according to General Abaubakar, include Mala Fatori, Kekeno, Mala Jamel and Yelwa.

He said: “Stabilisation operations are basically carried out in the theater to create the enabling environment for socio-economic activities to return to areas that were attempted to abandon because of the insurgency so that citizens can return back to their ancestral home to carry out their normal means of gaining a livelihood. 

“This has been done severally in different communities in the theater, to include Malamfatori where we have phase one, phase two, and phase three resettlement. Over a million households have been resettled in Malamfatori as we speak.

“The same applies to Kukawa, which is now a thriving town. If you take a ride into Kukawa, you will not believe the kind of socioeconomic activities that are taking place there. Then recently we resettled Kekenu.

“Stabilisation operations are also ongoing in Meirari. Meirari is about 30 kilometers from Mongunu town too. This is significant. So if we are able to do that, we are almost 80% done with support from the Borno state government. Then we are assured that those citizens can return back to their normal livelihood.”

Abubakar added that the military’s stabilisation operations has also resulted in the establishment of a Forward Operating Base (FOB) and fixing of Duji bridge, which was hitherto destroyed by Boko Haram over 10 years ago.

Duji is a border coming with the only bridge linking Nigeria with the Republic of Niger. The community was deserted during the heart of Boko Haram insurgency.

“Previously, we used to have the Nigerian Immigration Service and Customs in the border Post in this area. But it has been abandoned for close to 10 years now. But recently, we have been able to insert troops into Duji,” he said.

The Theater Commander said Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) remain one of the major challenges to troops’ operations in the North East, noting that capitalized on the bad roads to plant the IEDs.

General Abubakar, however, said that the Theater Command was working hard to ensure that some of the roads are fixed.

“We have procured some materials to fill some of the potholes so that we can deny the terrorists the opportunity to plant IEDs on these roads,” he said.