Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, on Tuesday, visited Rann, headquarters of Kala-Balge, Local Government Area,
The governor flew in a helicopter from Maiduguri to the remote area, which sits near the border between Nigeria and Cameroon, linking to Chadian territory.
The area is also inaccessible by road as it became waterlogged as a result of water released from a dam in Cameroon in July 2019.
The governor was accompanied by a member of the House of Representatives for Kala-Balge, Bama and Ngala federal constituency Dr Zainab Gimba, a representative at the state assembly and a special adviser from the area.
Led by Governor Zulum, the officials supervised the distribution of N100m in cash to the residents in Rann, whose only option is to trek about 10 kilometres to border communities in order to buy food and other basic needs.
“Each of the 10,000 households in the community was given between N10,000 and N15,000 cash because there is no banking service. Zulum had to fly cash as last option. Male householders received N15,000 each, while their female counterparts received N10,000 each,” a statement from Zulum’s spokesperson Isa Gusau said on Wednesday.
Residents of the agrarian community have been trapped while crops planted last year were destroyed by a herd of 250 elephants sighted by UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) officials from their helicopter back in December 2019.
Farmlands remain flooded and cannot be cultivated by the residents. Rann, largely populated by Borno’s Shuwa Arabs, is also not connected to the national grid for electricity supply.
Tuesday’s was Governor Zulum’s third humanitarian visit to Kala-Balge since June 2019.
