A mother of two who was held captive for over a year and eight months by Boko Haram terrorists and finally escaped, says though they are safe in the Internal Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, they can go for a whole month without food being provided by the government or donor agencies.

Amina Mohamed who is presently living in Maiduguri with her children at the National Youth Service Corps IDP camp narrated that she and her children are sometimes left to fend for themselves without any assistance from the government for long periods of time.

According to her, life in the IDP camp was quite difficult, as they were solely dependent on communities and humanitarian organisation who come with food to assist those at the camps.

The mother of two was speaking at a one day workshop on the protection of civilians in armed conflict situations towards a national policy organised by the Center for Civilians in conflict in conjunction with the Africa Center for Strategies Studies.

Mohammed revealed that her village was attacked in 2014 wherein her husband and son were killed by the terrorist and that she lost contact with most of her family members when she was in captivity.

Making a passionate appeal to the military and government Amina said, “we have a lot of our family members still held captive in the forest by the terrorists because they are scared to escape, I know the military is doing so much, but they need to do more to rescue them”.

Earlier Major General Ibrahim Yusuf who was once the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division Maiduguri from May 2017 – May 2018 noted that some of the challenges faced in executing a successful operation are trust issues between the civilian and the military who refuse to relate activities of the terrorists to the military for fear of attacks on their families.

He cited the vast terrain of Borno which makes it difficult for the military to actively patrol and lastly the lack of synergy between some humanitarian organization and the military while each conduct their activities.

The president of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, (Nigeria Chapter), Major General Shehu Yusuf (rtd) said that the draft policy states that though civilian harm is a tragic and often unavoidable consequence of the use of force during conflict, it is a national policy that all security operations involving Nigerian government agencies and forces will prioritize the safety and security of Civilians. (Daily Trust)

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