HOTPEN– At least two persons were confirmed dead as officials report the outbreak of cholera at a camp for surrendered Boko Haram members in Maiduguri, Borno state.
The development was confirmed by the officials of the Borno state government on Saturday, Sep. 17, 2022.
Koshere Camp is one of the facilities that was recently allocated to accommodate the surging number of surrendered members of the sect following the need to decongest the Hajj Camp that was initially allocated for camping the ex-terrorists.
Sources within the facility had said that the death toll on Friday and Saturday was more than 20. But officials insisted that the figure was not correct.
Zuwaira Gambo, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development in Borno state, whose ministry is in charge of all the rehabilitation facilities in Borno, informed The Humanitarian Times that “two lives were lost” to the cholera outbreak that affected many of the inmates of Koshere camp.
“We had a cholera outbreak situation at the camp and we have deployed every stakeholder from the ministry of health to move in and fumigate the place before all persons diagnosed with cholera had been moved out for proper quarantine,” she said.
On the death toll which sources had earlier said “14 deaths were recorded on Friday, and six on Saturday, the Commissioner of women affairs: “I don’t know where you are getting that figure, because only two deaths were reported amongst those diagnosed with cholera.”
There are over 70, 000 surrendered terrorists with their families that have been received by the military and the Borno state government.
The Theater Commander of the counterterrorism forces, Operation Hadin Kai, in northeast Nigeria, Major General Chris Musa had recently hinted that more than 14,000 of the surrendered Boko Haram were active fighters, while the rests were innocent civilians and mostly women and children.
The Borno state government had to recently open two more camps in Jere and Koshere to decongest the Hajj Camp facility currently housing most of the surrendered terrorists.