Rights Group Urges Nigeria to Halt Closure of Refugee Camps

In August 2020, the Borno State government announced and began plans to resettle over 1.8 million displaced people from camps in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, to other communities across the state where the government said houses and other amenities had been constructed or renovated to accommodate them. This was followed by another announcement in October 2021 that all displacement camps in Maiduguri will be shut down by December 31. Rights group Human Rights Watch says the resettlement and camp closures so far have taken place without adequate notice or information and left many people worse off.

The Boko Haram conflict, now in its twelfth year, has displaced over 2.9 million people in Nigeria's northeast and hundreds of thousands to neighbouring countries. Most of the internally displaced people are in Borno State, the epicentre of the conflict, living in host communities and the camps.

The rights group says there was no consultation or discussion to prepare them for the move or to tell them about available alternatives. They were returned abruptly to Kauwuri on September 10, 2020, a few days after they were told that that the government would take them there. Similarly, when the authorities took steps to shut down Bakassi camp in November 2021, they did not consult with displaced people.