The prevalence of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the North-East is a deadly legacy of the 14-year-old insurgency that has ravaged the zone. In Borno State, explosive remnants pose a threat to residents existence, creating an atmosphere of fear, heightened uncertainty, and worsening insecurity, thereby disrupting ongoing resettlement efforts. Additionally, it has hindered economic activities, disrupted the daily lives of residents, and impeded efforts to restore peace and stability. As schools, roads, farmlands, and even military operations remain unsafe, ENO-ABASI SUNDAY writes that residents and stakeholders are yearning for a safe Borno to rebuild their lives. They also say that a multi-pronged approach and international collaboration can make the place safe, even as some question government forces failure to provide civilians access to in-depth IED training. 

Adolphus Onyeama, an agriculture produce buyer resident in Borno State, has had several close shaves with death in the last 14 years. The Enugu State-born businessman has lived in the North for 26 years.

Before the advent of the Boko Haram insurgency, after which their more lethal cousins, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and Jamatul ahlis Sunna lil Dawatil Wal Jihad joined the party, he recalled that the state was a beautiful place to dwell in. The States motto is Home of Peace. Sadly, things have changed so much that close shaves with death are now normal occurrences.

In the course of business trips across the state, and states in the North-East including, Gombe, and Yobe among others, weve run into insurgents while either wasting human lives, looting shops, or engaging the military in gun duels. But kudos to the military for helping to achieve a semblance of sanity.

However, as the way begins to look like we are nearing the end, the rise in the number of deaths resulting from Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), and landmines, I must accept, is a new source of worry, Onyeama told The Guardian.

It is disheartening that with the insurgents having been either chased away or decimated, bombs planted by them have simply ensured that the stench of death is not far away from us with IEDs exploding everywhere. But we will still go past this phase, he enthused.

Like many other residents of Borno State, Bana Shettima, a farmer and fisherman is worn out by the activities of insurgents, which has left several scars on residents of the state, and contributed to their financial emasculation, as well as, made thousands of them to take up residence in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) camps, while their traditional homesteads remain desolate.

Most of our people have run into the Niger Republic because of what is happening in Borno State. This mass movement has driven up the level of intermarriages between Nigerians and Nigeriens, and many Nigerian businessmen and traders have settled down to do thriving businesses in Niger.

While the Federal Government is trying its best to bring peace to the state by way of smoking out the remaining insurgents, a lot of attention should be paid to landmines and improvised explosive devices planted, or left behind by fleeing insurgents because they appear to be just about everywhere. From Abadam to Damasak, Kuzamala to Kukawa up to Marte, there is a need for the government to make the place safe for residents and IDPs that are returning to rebuild their lives, Shettima, who is from Maiduguri, advised, adding that conflict-weary residents of the state cannot wait for the government to end the siege brought upon them by insurgent groups.

Without a doubt, the proliferation of unexploded ordnance/IEDs planted by insurgents, which is now cutting short the lives of military personnel, aid workers, civilian joint task force members, and locals constitutes a major source of concern, especially at a time that efforts by the state government to close refugee camps and return displaced locals to their forlorn homesteads in phases enters a higher gear.

Put differently, mirrors the multi-dimensional harm done by IEDs and sundry explosive remnants like the rising number of deaths involving the military, the civilian population, as well as terrorists in Borno State, and in other trouble spots in the North East, where terrorism still holds sway.

As far back as 2019, terrorists lost their lives when the vehicle they were commuting in stepped on IEDs, which they planted for troops in Lambaa Forest along Jakana-Mainok Road, in Borno State.

Colonel Aminu Iliyasu, then Nigerian Army Operations Media Coordinator, who made the disclosure, informed that seven terrorists died in the incident, while eight others were crippled in that incident.

The incident was a clear case of what can be best described as a tactical boomerang as a Toyota Sam Sahara model belonging to the terrorists, stepped on an IED that they planted against troops in the area, Iliyasu said.

Five years after that tactical boomerang at Lambaa forest, an IED exploded in Gubio, at about 2.00 p.m., on Saturday, January 27, this year, claiming the lives of six children, as the incident happened near a local Islamic school.

The explosion happened after a metal scrap collector accidentally picked up and lodged in between his collection, an IED, which exploded and killed the innocent children.

Only a few days after the six Almajiri children lost their lives in Gubio, 13 farmers reportedly lost their lives in another blast along the Pulka/Firgi Road, in Gwoza Local Council. That incident further exposed the heinous tactics deployed by insurgents to make life difficult for residents of the area, drive fear into them, and cause trepidation among military personnel.

It was this proliferation of UXO in Borno State, and the latent dangers posed by undetected explosives that forced Governor Babagana Zulum to, in July 2023, ban metal scavenging since the scavengers could not detect lurking danger as was the case in Gubio, last January.

Marte is 150 kilometres from Maiduguri the state capital, while Ngala, is 153 kilometres from the capital. These two local councils are economically strategic to Borno State and the Federal Government because of sizeable trans-border commercial activities along that route.

But major roads leading to these local councils have not only depreciated, but have become easy traps for commuters and other users by Boko Haram terrorists, and sundry outlaws, who find joy in planting explosives on them.

Multiple explosions along Maiduguri-Dikwa-Marte-Ngala roads have also led to the death of security operatives, humanitarian workers and farmers recently.

There are growing fears that labourers in Koibe Community, in Dikwa Local Council, are being targeted by the insurgents after two IEDs detonated in Koibe Primary School, on Monday, February 26, killing two labourers who were working there, and also inflicting injuries on five others. In the second incident on the outskirts of Koibe, an IED was also detonated at a construction site, but no labourers were around. However, eight cattle that were roaming close by were killed, with one of the cattle believed to have stood on the IED, causing it to detonate.