COVID 19: Borno bans visits to IDP camps

The Borno State government has banned visitors to all Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps across the state.

The 4-week ban, which was part of strategies to contain the outbreak of the virus in the state, was announced yesterday by Chairperson of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Hajiya Yabawa Kolo.

Mrs. Kolo, who is member of Zulum’s response team, made the announcement during a meeting with 51 camp managers in Maiduguri the state capital.

Zulum had last week appointed the state’s deputy governor, Umar Kadafur to chair a high powered multistakeholder response team which had all agencies of the United Nations led by the World Health Organization and Borno Ministries of Health, Education, Transport, Information, Local Governments, Religious Affairs and agencies involved with humanitarian affairs.

According to her, the state took the decision as one of the strategies to prevent importation of the virus at the camps, adding that the measure became necessary as some of the neighbouring countries like Chad Republic and Cameroon have recorded suspected cases.

She explained that despite closure of the borders by the neighbouring countries, there was still influx of IDPs into the state.

The Borno SEMA Boss directed all camp managers from Gamboru-Ngala, Damasak, Kalabalge, Banki, Bama and Monguno not to accept IDPs from any neighbouring country into their camps.

She said; “We know we have a lot of threat around us following sighting of suspected cases of the virus in Cameroon and Chad and we have some border towns very close to those countries.

“We do not want to go to the issue of response because even in developed countries, it was difficult for them to contain this pandemic. So at our own level, we are positioning ourselves to see how best we can stop the virus from transmitting in the state” she noted.