In this photo taken on September 15, 2016 women and children queue to enter one of the Unicef nutrition clinics at the Muna makeshift camp which houses more than 16,000 IDPs (internaly displaced people) on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Borno State, northeastern Nigeria.
Aid agencies have long warned about the risk of food shortages in northeast Nigeria because of the conflict, which has killed at least 20,000 since 2009 and left more than 2.6 million homeless. In July, the United Nations said nearly 250,000 children under five could suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year in Borno state alone and one in five — some 50,000 — could die. / AFP PHOTO / STEFAN HEUNIS
The Borno police command has revealed that the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP), a faction of ISIS, has its spies operating from internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in the state.
Ahmed Bello, an assistant commissioner of police in Borno, disclosed this while giving update on the security in the state.
The police assistant commissioner said three among the 22 Boko Haram insurgents arrested two months ago were members of ISIS.
As stated by him, the insurgents station their stooges at the IDP camps to perpetuate chaos.
His words: “We had launched radio programmes aimed at sensitising the larger society on the need to be sensitive of their environment,” he said.
“It will interest you to note that some of the affected victims in camps were not IDPs. We have our ways of rating them to the classes of A.B.C.
“So if you find any suspicious person, do not just send him away, but arrest him because the terrorists have their sympathisers; they are the people that are giving them information.”
Bello said the arrest of the culprit had led to drastic reduction in cases of bomb blasts perpetrated by the insurgents, using an improvised explosive device (IED) in Maiduguri metropolis.