Nigerian government officials have ordered thousands of
displaced people to return to an unsafe area as pressure mounts to show
progress in the war against Islamist groups ahead of a presidential
election, according to sources familiar with the situation.
FILE
PHOTO: Huts and sheds are seen at the Gamboru/Ngala internally
displaced persons (IDPs) camp in Borno, Nigeria.
Those
who have gone back say they only did so because the officials told them
they would get no more aid if they remained in refugee camps. Returnees
say their home area of Guzamala in the northeast is not safe and they
cannot earn a living there.
At issue is the re-election of
President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general who won power in 2015 on a
promise to restore security to the northeast and end the Islamist Boko
Haram insurgency, now in its tenth year.
Western
diplomats and aid officials have expressed concern that sending
displaced people back to their home regions is part of Buhari’s
political agenda, and that of the ruling party as local elections are
also being held.
“Pushing these people back just to make a point
when the security situation remains tenuous is a terrible idea,” one
diplomat told Reuters.
The government and the election commission
have met to discuss how to expedite returns as the election early next
year nears, according to a person with direct knowledge of those talks.
Officials
have told people their home areas are safe and they can go back to
their livelihoods. That is a tempting proposition for people who have
lived in camps for years, dependent on handouts.
In June,
government officials told some 2,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs)
living in Bakasi camp in the city of Maiduguri to go back to a town in
the Guzamala region, according to interviews with returnees, a
government official and others with knowledge of the matter.
“They
said, ‘If you refuse to return, you are on your own, the government
will not help you anymore’,” said Hassan, who, like other returnees,
asked to be identified by his first name for fear of reprisals.
Guzamala
is viewed by the United Nations and aid organizations as inaccessible
or hard to reach. They do not deliver aid to a region under the sway of
Islamic State West Africa. ISWA split from Boko Haram in 2016 and is now
the bigger threat in Nigeria’s northeast, security experts believe.
Earlier
this month, Islamist militants killed at least 19 people, and possibly
as many as 63, in an attack on a village in Guzamala.
Foreign
governments, which provide aid and military support in the northeast,
successfully lobbied Nigerian officials to pause the returns to
dangerous areas like Guzamala, though the program is expected to resume
after an assessment, said four people familiar with the matter.
FORCED TO LEAVE
Four
returnees who spoke with Reuters said government officials ordered them
to Guzamala. Three said those officials threatened to cut off their aid
if they refused - a threat that was carried out, so even those who
wanted to stay had to leave.
Interviewees identified Sugun Mai
Meleh, the commissioner of land and survey for Borno state, and Lawan
Umara Zanna, the chairman for Guzamala, as the officials who made the
threats. They said Borno State House of Assembly Speaker Abdulkarim
Lawan was also present.
Borno is at the center of the fight against Boko Haram and ISWA. Maiduguri and Guzamala both lie within the state.
Lawan
told Reuters that he was at the gathering returnees had described, but
he was not aware of any forced returns and no threats were made. “That
is not true,” he said.
The Nigerian presidency, military and Mai Meleh did not respond to requests for comment. Zanna declined to comment.
Bashir
Garga Idris, northeast Nigeria coordinator for the National Emergency
Management Agency, said people were not being coerced to return,
although he did not know about the reported threats because he was
outside Nigeria at the time.
ELECTION PRESSURE
In
meetings, the government has discussed how to return as many people as
possible to their home regions in Borno in the run-up to the election,
said a person with knowledge of those discussions.
Aid officials and Western diplomats also say the government’s return program is geared towards elections.
The
aim is to have as many people returned as possible so they can vote in
primaries, which run from August to October, the person with knowledge
of talks added.
In Nigeria, people can only vote in regions
where they are registered, potentially making hundreds of thousands of
people displaced to Maiduguri ineligible unless special arrangements are
made for them.
Mikah Lakumna, an official with the Independent
National Electoral Commission in Borno, said that the government was
trying to close some IDP camps, and INEC was exploring ways to ensure
those people’s voting rights.
INEC is assessing security to see
how it can send election officials into dangerous areas, and is also
looking into instances where voters had been coerced into returning to
regions they were registered, Lakumna said.
“WE WERE DECEIVED”
The
roughly 2,000 Guzamala returnees are part of more than 7.7 million
people in Nigeria’s northeast who need aid to survive in one of the
world’s biggest humanitarian crises.
When they reached Guzamala, they found a wasteland.
Their
town was in ruins. Many buildings were burned or collapsed, returnees
told Reuters. There were so few houses that people took shelter in a
school where rain had caved in the roof.
Pictures of the town, seen by Reuters, showed shattered structures and blackened streets littered with burnt-out debris.
There,
some food and supplies - enough to feed a family of 10 for a day,
according to one man - were distributed. Since then, the returnees have
been left for weeks at a time to fend for themselves. Some soldiers took
pity on them and handed over their own water rations.
“We were deceived,” said Modu, a returnee. “There is nothing in Guzamala other than suffering.”
Some in authority also had reservations.
“The
place was not ready for the survival of people because there is no
food, water is scarce,” said a soldier in Guzamala, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
“It is not only Guzamala that is in
terrible state, but the whole of northern Borno - Boko Haram ruined the
place and they are still there. Ordinarily, IDPs are not supposed to
return now, but because our ogas (bosses) just want to make it look as
if things are okay there.”
Officials had promised Guzamala’s
returnees they could farm, but there was nothing to farm, nor anything
to farm with, the returnees said. Much of the suitable land lies in the
bush, where ISWA roams.
“They forced us to return and they did not keep their promises,” said Mohammed, another returnee.
Of
those who went to Guzamala, dozens have tried to return to the relative
safety of Maiduguri. The city is guarded, and aid agencies provide
food, shelter and medicine.
“We expected the government to
provide us with food, but nothing was done. It is better to return back
to Maiduguri than to die of hunger,” said Kadai, another Guzamala
returnee. “The government lied to us.”
In Maiduguri, returnees
found government officials had denied them access to aid, according to
two people familiar with the camp management. Left with no choice, they
returned to Guzamala.