The United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP) has helped residents of Ngwom village in rebuilding infrastructures that were destroyed by the Boko Haram during the insurgency in Borno State.
The UNDP under its Integrated Community Stabilization of the North East programme undertook the project to rebuild Ngwom, located in Mafa local government of Borno state.
The project which gulped over a million dollars was executed with co-funding from the Government of Japan.
Locals living in the village who deserted the area since 2014 are preparing to return to the only place they consider home.
Ngwom village of Mafa local government is few kilometers away from the metropolitan city of Maiduguri.
Before the Boko Haram crisis, it was a community with a reputation as a livestock and trading hub in Borno state and across the Lake Chad basin and the Central African Republic.
The community was completely razed down by insurgents in two different attacks in 2014 and 2015.
More than three thousand villagers were left displaced in Maiduguri where most of them have been living ever since.
According to one of the residents, “Boko Haram chased us away, since we left four years ago we never turned back until today.”
It is this same community the UNDP North East Sub Office with co-funding from development partners has built back with 300 houses,288 market stalls, a primary school, a health centre, and boreholes among other things for the community.
The UNDP representative stated that “Four years ago no one would have imagined that Ngwom would be home to thousands again.
The Borno state government through which the project was implemented is happy with what the UNDP has done.
Governor Kashim Shettima however says government will rely on the security ambience before making any move to relocate the Ngwom IDPS to their homes.
“We have to look at the security architecture before now, beneficiaries are equally grateful for their rebuild community and are eager to start off again.
However one of the residents commended the government for what they have done, “if I am empowered I can do petty trading in front of my house to cater for myself.”
However many locals who lost their homes were not captured in the distribution. They are calling on authorities concerned to compensate them.
The Borno state government through its ministry of Reconstruction and Rehabilitation has been rebuilding communities destroyed by the anti-government militia, Boko Haram.
