ICC Note:

The suffering of over 1 million IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons), doesn’t end now that they are returning to their villages in north east Nigeria.  The deadly attacks  by the Boko Haram and their displacement was followed by months in refugee camps that didn’t have adequate food and medical care.  They are now slowly returning back to their villages, only to face extortion by the military that is supposed to protect them and get killed by mines planted by Boko Horam.    Please  pray for IDPs in Nigeria as they resettle. 

11/3/2016  Nigeria (Fox News)  –  First, there was the bomb blast that killed eight people. Then, delays as soldiers demanded bribes to escort the survivors on their journey. Finally, the way was blocked by trucks mired in churned-up mud.

When the refugees from Boko Haram’s Islamic insurgency eventually made it home to a newly liberated town in northeast Nigeria, they found “people but no food.” Last week, as they made the hazardous trip for a second time with food and other supplies, a truck exploded a land mine, wounding several refugees.

But many say the dangerous journey is preferable to the hunger, humiliation and inhumane conditions in refugee camps where more than 1 million Nigerians, displaced by Boko Haram, are waiting to go home. Many are in Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast, the birthplace of Boko Haram, which has killed more than 20,000 and forced 2.6 million from their homes.

As Nigeria’s military pushes back against the insurgency and declares once-inaccessible regions to be liberated, more and more refugees are weighing whether to return.

The journey is just the first challenge. The returnees find firebombed homes, destroyed wells and the constant fear of attack by the extremists, who roam the region and keeps vast parts of it inaccessible. The fear keeps returnees from planting their crops, despite famine-like conditions that aid workers warn are already killing children and threatening hundreds of thousands.

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