ICC Note: United Nations and local government officials have agreed to construct 2,500 homes in northeastern Nigeria for displaced families who have fled from Boko Haram. Thousands of Africans have been forced from their homes fleeing from the Islamic terrorist group who had once controlled much of northeastern Nigeria. Since President Buhari took office, the Nigerian army along with an African task force of regional nations, has seen positive momentum against the extremists. Many of the displaced have been members of local Christian communities as Boko Haram targets religious minorities through rape, murder, and kidnapping. While the new location will only around 20,000 people, it is a sign of new beginnings for the afflicted. 

11/06/2015 Maiduguri, Nigeria (US News and World Report) – A new refugee camp with 2,500 temporary homes is being built in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri for a few of of the hundreds of thousands of refugees there who fled the Boko Haram uprising, officials said.

The camp — another sign that few expect the conflict to end soon — will house refugees occupying public schools, allowing classes to resume, hopefully next month, officials said.

Hundreds of thousands of children have not been to school for more than 18 months in Maiduguri and elsewhere in northeast Nigeria, where authorities closed all schools as they were targeted by the Islamic insurgents. Boko Haram is a nickname meaning “Western education is sinful.”

The U.N. agencies for refugees and children are building the camp along with Borno state government to house about 20,000 people. Mohammed Tejan-Cole of the U.N. refugee agency told a ground-breaking ceremony Thursday that the camp will include wells, toilets, a clinic and classrooms.

President Muhammadu Buhari has said he wants all Boko Haram camps destroyed by the end of the year. Even if that happens, the militants are expected to continue deadly hit-and-run raids and suicide bombings. Some 20,000 people have died in the 6-year-old uprising.

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