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The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Stuart Symington today met in closed door with Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima.
The State government made this known in a statement and said the meeting was “towards a better Borno”.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) handed over a completely rebuilt Borno community earlier destroyed by Boko Haram to the affected displaced people.
The rebuilt village is Ngwom, an agrarian community in Mafa Local Government Area of Borno State, 10km from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
The village was attacked and completely razed down by Boko Haram in 2014, with over 100 persons killed during the attack.
The UNDP under its integrated rural development programme initiated the rebuilding of 300 destroyed mud houses with modern bricks and corrugated iron roofs in Ngwom.
The community was also lifted with newly built 288 market stalls, a school complex, 20 grocery stores, a central mosque, two water boreholes and a police security outpost.
“It cost the UNDP the sum of $1 million to rebuild the community,” said Edward Kallon, head of the UN in Borno State.
The project, a pilot for the integrated community development scheme, is part of the post-conflict initiative supported by funding from the Swiss and Japanese governments.
After Boko Haram attacked and burnt down Ngwom over three years ago, most of the residents fled to Maiduguri, where they lived a less dignified life in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Those that managed to return to the village weeks after the attack said they could not stand the ruins their homes had become.
Many of them said due to the massive nature of the destruction, they had to leave with little or no hope of ever returning to rebuild their homes again.
But on Tuesday the villagers were asked to return to take delivery of the keys to their rebuilt homes.
Today’s closed door meeting between the US Ambassador to Nigeria and the Borno State Governor took place at the Ambassador’s residence.