Report: 20,000 Killed, $5.9bn Property Destroyed by Boko Haram in Borno

About 20,000 people have been killed since the start of the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State, according to a report from the World Bank that also put the cost of destruction at $5.9 billion.

The report laid bare the extent of the damage since the insurgency began in 2009 and which at one point saw the Islamists control swathes of territory across the northeast.

The report is part of a Post-Insurgency Recovery and Peace-building Assessment, an intervention programme involving the World Bank, European Union and the UN with the six northeastern states.

Assessments in each of the states were carried out in areas including education, health care, water, sanitation, housing, municipal buildings, energy, environment, transport, economy and business.

In Borno, sources conversant with the report told AFP monday that some 20,000 citizens are thought to have been killed during the violence — a higher figure than previous estimates.

In addition, the majority of the more than 2 million internally displaced persons came from the state.

In the 27 local government districts that make up state, the fighting destroyed or damaged the following: 956,453 (nearly 30 per cent) out of 3,232,308 private houses; 5,335 classrooms and school buildings in 512 primary, 38 secondary and two tertiary institutions; 1,205 municipal, local government or ministry buildings; 76 police stations; 35 electricity offices.

Others include 14 prison buildings; 201 health centres; 1,630 water sources; 726 power sub-stations and distribution lines. In some areas such as Bama, the destruction was near total, with only 20 per cent of houses unscathed.

The report also estimated that parks, game, forest and grazing reserves, orchards, river basins and lakes have been poisoned in 16 of the 27 areas, and 470,000 livestock killed or stolen.

The source close to the Borno State Government said the report has yet to be approved by the World Bank and a decision was expected soon on funding.

But given the cost of the damage — about $5.9 billion — and Nigeria’s struggling economy caused by the global oil shock, matching external funding for reconstruction could be problematic, the source added. The World Bank in Nigeria declined to comment.