Dangote donates $10m to families affected by Boko Haram

Nigerian business magnate, Aliko Dangote has donated 10 million dollars to help families affected by the insurgency waged by Nigeria’s Islamist militant group, Boko Haram.

Dangote, Africa’s richest man with an estimated wealth of $17 billion announced the donation when he visited camps in Borno state with the governor Kashim Shettima.

The donation is the biggest by any individual towards helping victims of the crisis in the north-east of Nigeria.

Dangote said his main priority was to help deal with malnutrition and hunger in the camps as well as provide education and create job opportunities for people.

The BBC quoted him as saying: “This is not the first time I am coming here and it will not be the last”.

The business mogul said he had previously donated about $6 million to help tackle the humanitarian crisis in the north of the country.

The seven-year insurgency waged by Boko Haram has forced over two million people from their homes, many of whom live in camps.

An estimated 17,000 others have been killed during the insurgency.

The Nigerian government has however urged residents of areas recaptured from the militant group to return home.

Boko Haram is exploiting the high levels of unemployment in the largely under-developed parts of northeast Nigeria to recruit young fighters.

The group which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in April 2014 abducted over 270 girls from the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School. Some 219 of the girls still remain in the grips of the militant group.