A displaced man rides a bicycle in a camp for people internally displaced by the conflict with Boko Haram in the Monguno district of Borno State, Nigeria, in February 2017. A displaced man rides a bicycle in a camp for people internally displaced by the conflict with Boko Haram in the Monguno district of Borno State, Nigeria, in February 2017
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Friday it was providing emergency help after 33 children died in a camp housing people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria. MSF said that the children died of malnutrition, diarrhoea and malaria between August 2-15 in Bama, once the second-largest town in the ravaged state of Borno but now a humanitarian hub.
Children were arriving at the camp in a “critical condition” and their health was worsening in the absence of proper medical care, MSF said in a press statement. The Nigerian government claims that Boko Haram Islamists are no longer a potent threat but since April more than 10,000 people have sought shelter in Bama, putting pressure on a camp that hit its maximum capacity of 25,000 at the end of July, MSF said. The “assistance provided is not keeping up with the number of IDPs (internally displaced people),” it warned.
“The big question is the capacity of the camp which needs to be expanded,” said Isabelle Mouniaman, MSF spokesperson in Paris. In June, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is seeking re-election, next year, said that Nigeria’s remote northeast was in a “post-conflict stabilisation phase”. But a recent surge in attacks has highlighted a deteriorating security situation there. Soldiers have started protesting following a series of bloody Boko Haram attacks on military bases in recent months. Mail Online
Pix: Children queuing to get food at IDP camp in Bornu State
