Nigeria news : Boko Haram: There are over 60,000 orphans in Borno IDP camps – Ndume

Boko Haram, The Senator representing Borno South in the upper chambers of Nigeria’s National Assembly, Mohammed Ali Ndume, has said there are over 57,000 children who are orphans across IDP camps in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.

Ndume stated this during an interview with reporters a few days before a Federal High Court remanded him in prison over his inability to produce a former Chairman of the defunct pension reform task force team, Maina, currently at large over alleged money laundering.

Ndume said the number of orphans in the IDP camps is alarming as these children have no guardians or parents.

“When I was told that there are over sixty thousand children orphans in the IDP camps, I did not agree until during the state visit by the vice president some time ago that we counted the number and discovered about 57,000 children unaccompanied and who are sadly orphans,” he said.

The senator who also spoke on insurgents’ activities, particularly around his hometown Gwoza, which used to be the hub and caliphate of the sect, said, Shekau, who is the spiritual leader, was holding Sambisa forest and the Mandata mountain after the break up of the militants.

“While the other faction established the ISWAP in the fringes of the lake chad, Shekau was leading other factions and controlling the Sambisa and Mandata mountain from where they launch attacks,” he said.

According to Ndume, over nine billion Naira worth of property has been destroyed by the insurgents over the period, informing the northeast region’s crises.