Nigeria Air Force has performed free surgeries on 201 persons displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno in the past three weeks.

Chief Medical Director, Air Force Headquarters, Air Vice Marshal Saleh Shinkafi, told newsmen that the three-week exercise was concluded on Wednesday at the NAF medical centre in Maiduguri.

He said the patients are from the Bama, Banki and Dalori Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.

Shinkafi explained that 82 persons benefitted from eye surgeries and 68 others were treated for various eye diseases while 51 persons benefitted from general surgeries.

The chief medical officer listed the surgeries to include Cataract, Pterygium, Epilation, Laparotomy, Herniorrhaphy, Hydrocelectomy and Lymphoma excision, saying some of the patients suffering from trachoma and allergic conjunctivitis were also treated during the exercise.

Shinkafi said the exercise was conducted under the NAF medical intervention scheme that is designed to improve the health of IDPs in the North-East region.

According to him, the service had conducted free medical services on more than 300,000 IDPs in the country in the past two years.

Also commenting, Ismail Umar, one of the beneficiaries commended the Nigeria Air Force for the gesture.

“I have had this ailment for the past 20 years and I do not have money to treat it; now it has been treated and I am happy. I commend the Nigeria Air Force for this noble gesture,” Umar said.