MAIDUGURI — In a decisive move to restructure the humanitarian and security landscape of northeast Nigeria, the Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, has directed the immediate and unconditional closure of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp located in Bama Local Government Area. Concurrently, the governor announced that a similar state-managed displacement facility in Gwoza is slated for complete decommissioning within the next few weeks. The sweeping directive follows a high-level, unannounced assessment visit by the governor to the Government Secondary School IDP camp in Gwoza on Thursday. The Bama facility holds immense strategic significance, recognized as the single largest displacement camp operating outside of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, which has served as the epicentre of the regional humanitarian response for over a decade.
Governor Zulum’s administrative action marks a major shift from prolonged camp management to aggressive, state-backed resettlement. Speaking to community leaders, security personnel, and humanitarian actors during his profiling exercise in Gwoza, the governor made it clear that the state would no longer tolerate the indefinite maintenance of makeshift camps, which he argued are increasingly counterproductive to regional stabilization. We visited Bama yesterday and supervised the screening of IDPs, and by 12 noon, Bama IDP camp should be closed, Governor Zulum declared, highlighting the immediate enforcement of the order. Turning his attention to the current location, he added, Today we are here in Gwoza, we have profiled all of them, and Insha Allah, in the next two or three weeks this camp will also be closed. The state government’s aggressive closure timeline is anchored on the premise that regional stability has improved significantly. According to the governor, the systematic dismantling of these camps has only become viable due to the liberation and security restoration within various subnational communities that were previously occupied or routinely terrorized by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) insurgents.
The planned closures are part of a broader, structured resettlement campaign that the Borno State government has aggressively pursued over the past seven years. Rather than leaving displaced populations in a state of perpetual dependency, the administration has invested billions of naira in rebuilding ruined infrastructure, constructing low-cost housing, and deploying security formations to rural border towns. The governor highlighted several ancestral communities where the state government has successfully, sustainably resettled thousands of formerly displaced citizens, allowing them to reclaim their agricultural livelihoods, including Darajamal, Nguro Soye, Goniri, Banki, Abbaram, Ngoshe, Kirawa, and Warabe. By systematically moving populations out of the camps and back into these secured towns, the state aims to revitalize local economies and restore a sense of civic normalcy, breaking the cycle of humanitarian aid dependency that has characterized the region since the insurgency peaked.
Beyond economic and humanitarian considerations, Governor Zulum raised severe alarms regarding the rapidly deteriorating security situation inside the displacement facilities. He candidly revealed that state intelligence reports indicate that terrorist elements are actively exploiting the open nature of the camps to merge with civilian populations, using the facilities as logistical bases and recruitment grounds. In our camps now, there is an ongoing criminality; we have identified all of them and they’ll be resettled based on their localities and to their community heads. Otherwise, Boko Haram/ISWAP are gradually infiltrating the camps, the governor warned. By dissolving the centralized camps and returning individuals directly to their original communities, the administration plans to place citizens under the direct supervision of traditional rulers and local community heads. This localized oversight model is expected to make it significantly more difficult for insurgent sympathizers or active fighters to operate undetected, as community leaders possess granular knowledge of their respective populations.
One of the most startling revelations from the governor’s assessment was the uncovering of widespread systemic fraud within the camp registration databases. Governor Zulum alleged that a significant portion of the current camp populations consists of what he described as fake IDPs—stable residents who actually own homes within secured towns but deliberately relocate into the tents solely to exploit relief distribution networks. The screening exercise exposed a massive artificial inflation of household numbers, driven primarily by the desire to secure material handouts, food items, and financial allowances distributed by international non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Many of those that are residents living in their homes are returning to the camps to receive handouts from non-governmental organizations, Zulum remarked with visible frustration. We will ensure the returns are sustainable. One year ago, this was almost a ghost camp with not more than about 400 households. It is surprising that about 3,000 households are back in the camp, and most of them are residents living within the town.
The Borno State government clarified that the closures in Bama and Gwoza are merely the latest phases of a comprehensive policy aimed at completely eliminating IDP camps across the state before the constitutional expiration of the current administration's tenure. The governor emphasized that true dignity for conflict-affected populations cannot be achieved within the confines of a displacement camp, but rather through self-reliance, local commerce, and safe return to ancestral lands. As state ministries, departments, and agencies scramble to execute the logistics of the Bama and Gwoza evacuations, international humanitarian organizations are being urged to recalibrate their operations. The government wants aid agencies to shift their funding models away from short-term camp relief distributions and toward long-term developmental support, agricultural empowerment, and structural rehabilitation within the newly resettled communities.
