Fatima Kaomi and peer in Dalori IDP camp survive malnutrition on WFP’s diet of Plumpy Sup.
THIS is not your typical captivating news story. If it were, you would see gruesome imagery of Amidu Subair, 4, in painted words. You will see his sunken eyes, scaly skin and parched lips. You will see his distended belly strain with ribs that cut through it, like tyre tracks on Borno’s dirt roads.
You will see him vomit his milk ration because his body is too weak to ingest food. Then you will see lurid portraiture of Borno’s camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) like a zoo. You will read of Amidu, his mother, Halima, and other IDPs like caged animals in the zoo.
But this is hardly a gothic fable, hence you won’t read of dying kids and forlorn mothers living like caged animals in Borno’s IDP camps.
This is a story of survival. It is the story of four-year-old Amidu and his mother, Halima’s undying passion to keep him well-nourished and alive. Halima, 33, desperately clings to hope as she nourishes her beloved son and only surviving fruit of her womb to good health.
Amidu’s four siblings and his father, Abu, were hacked to death on a hot afternoon in Bama, when the rampaging hordes of terrorist sect, Boko Haram, invaded their home. Thus the four-year-old is bereaved widow, Halima’s only surviving child and evidence of her 10-year marriage.
This is the story of Fatimata Ali, who fled Bama after Boko Haram hacked one of her children to death and she watched helplessly as four of her other kids drowned in a river, while fleeing the bullets and cudgels of Boko Haram’s terror squads.
Fatimata had 11 children and she was heavily pregnant with Fatima Kaomi, her last child, when Boko Haram struck in her community. The terrorist group set her house ablaze and shot hot lead into her son killing him instantly. While her son breathed his last, Fatimata fled Bama with the rest of her children. Her husband had already fled with five of their children. But unknown to Fatimata, a greater disaster lay in wait for her as four of her surviving kids drowned in the river as they fled for safety. The 40-year-old watched helplessly as her four kids drowned in the river. No one attempted to help her as everyone else fled in search of a safe haven.
Fatimata fled into the bush from where she was eventually rescued and granted safe passage to the Dalori IDP camp in Maiduguri. She gave birth to her last child, Fatima Kaomi, in the camp soon after her husband died of a protracted illness. Fatimata believes her husband died of heartbreak over the death of his five children. Fatimata lives in extreme agony too. It was so painful to watch her dab the tears from her eyes as she revealed that she still has nightmares of her children’s death. Fatimata eventually developed high blood pressure from the miseries she had been through.
Unlike Fatimata, Hanatu, 28, was asleep when death came knocking. She started from sleep to see silhouettes behind her window and before she could piece together the unfolding drama, the pungent smell of fumes wafted in to her bedroom. Her eyes stung from the flumes and droplets of fire falling from her burning ceiling. Her roof crackled as the wooden beams yielded to the tongue of the fiery flame ignited atop her home by the rampaging terror squad of Boko Haram.
‘Fatimata fled into the bush from where she was eventually rescued and granted safe passage to the Dalori IDP camp in Maiduguri. She gave birth to her last child, Fatima Kaomi, in the camp soon after her husband died of a protracted illness. Fatimata believes her husband died of heartbreak over the death of his five children. She lives in extreme agony too. It was so painful to watch her dab the tears from her eyes as she revealed that she still has nightmares of her children’s death’
As she cried for her husband and babies, a loud shot rang out and pandemonium ensued.
“They have killed my father!” screamed Ahmedu, her eldest son but before Hawau could hush the eight-year-old to silence, a menacing fellow burst into her bedroom, trampling on the lean mat on which she and her husband sired Ahmed and his twin siblings. The marauder pumped three bullets in her bed, killing her twins and ridding her world of the joy of their cherubic chatter. Few minutes after their departure, she lacked the courage to venture into the living room. By the time the husband of a neighbour arrived to drag her out of the burning house, Hawau could only steal glances at the splatter of her husband’s skull across the wall and their entrance door. She never found Ahmedu. A few neighbours claimed he was whisked away by Boko Haram’s terror squad.
Several kids within and outside Borno IDP camps face imminent hunger
Aisha Ahmadu, 32, has five children. She fled Bama in the wake of Boko Haram’s attacks. According to her, her husband was away on business in Lagos. She fled Bama with neighbours after Boko Haram set her home aflame.
Like Ahmadu, Zainab Muhammed, 20, fled Bama after Boko Haram invaded her community and set her house on fire. She ran out into the bush before fleeing to Maiduguri. According to her, she and her husband had been living in Dalori camp for two years. They had three children but one of them died of malnutrition soon after their arrival in the camp. Her last child, Muhammed Mala, could have gone the way of his malnourished sibling save the timely diet of Plumpy Sup provided for malnourished infants in Dalori IDP camp. Bintu Bukar, 25, also hails from Bama. She has four children but her husband was shot to death by Boko Haram, when the group attacked Bama around 1.30 pm on a Monday afternoon in 2014. Bukar will return to Bama at the slightest opportunity because she left pieces of her life back there. According to her, it’s hellish living on the camp.
Whether sleeping on the sidewalks of Maiduguri; in a mud hut in Mokolo, Cameroun’s Far North Region; or in the curtained tents of converted wild lands of Muna, Dalori or Garwa, the refugee child is the one who cannot go home again. Behind him lies the major conflagrations of past years World War II, the Palestinian war in 1948, Dienbienphu in 1954, the Algerian strife, Hungary of 1956, Tibet in 1959, Nigerian civil war of 1967or the tragic manifestations of the JTF-Boko Haram bloodbath in Northeastern Nigeria. Sometimes beckoned by hope, usually driven by despair, he forsakes his homeland for the uncertainties of safe haven in another land or other parts of their homeland.
All around the refugee camp, many seemed to be disenchanted and at sea. Many more seemed to be dealing silently with their grief and scrambling for the safety. The quest for peace and freedom apparently drove them there. Far from the Dalori refugee camp, along the desert plains of Muna to be exact, Ibrahim Mahmud, 44, dwells in destitution with his wife and their only surviving child, Hafsa. The latter, a four-year- old girl, was the only one they could save of their three kids when Boko Haram struck in Bama.
•Concerted govt and NGOs’ support has allegedly improved quality of care for malnourished kids
In the decrepit barn he shares with the surviving members of his family, the atmosphere is grim and bare of comfort. Nothing moves or kicks save the occasional glide of the itinerant gnat and rustle of dried palm fronds blown against the wooden poles of the shed by breeze. All around Mahmud and his family, echoes of a gruesome massacre boom ominously in the shades of angst and desolation masking their faces and other refugees’ faces.
Their refuge is a slum; home to hundreds crammed into rickety and makeshift tents, their hearts are fraught with freshly borne agonies and unspeakable narratives. “We are all very devastated. Most of us have lost loved ones. When Boko Haram invaded our town, they ruined our lives. They burnt our homes and killed everybody,” said Mahmud.
•A malnourished child on admission at an MSF clinic
Many new arrivals dwell outside the camps, taking refuge in nearby villages like Muna Dalti. Many more are scattered across the city of Maiduguri. Others, who fled areas located as far as 300 kilometers away such as Maiduguri in Nigeria, have used cars or motorcycles. New arrivals are either renting houses or staying with host families, who are themselves living in very precarious conditions in the open and under trees.
Although the local population has welcomed those who have newly arrived, the presence of newcomers is putting a strain on meager local food and water resources. But for the support of the state government and international aid groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) many kids would starve to death in the IDP camps. In January, 2,731 children were treated for severe acute malnutrition. Seventy-nine per cent of them recovered while 14 per cent dropped out of treatment, five per cent did not survive, according to NGO statistics.
Security and humanitarian conditions continue to deteriorate due to violence and conflict. Fleeing populations and host communities are facing severe food insecurity resulting from successive poor harvests due to abandoned crops, minimal cross-border cash crop trade and lost economic opportunities.
•IDPs at Dalori Camp, Maiduguri seat on queue for provisions and nutritional support
The August 2016 Cadre Harmonisé analysis of the World Food Programme (WFP) notes that there are 4.4 million food insecure people in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States. Out of these, 1.1 million people allegedly risk starvation in Borno and Yobe States, according to the report.
Following reports of critical gaps in food assistance in some locations in Borno State and to decide on possible expansion, a joint United Nations Children Education Fund and World Food Programme (UNICEF-WFP) access mission was initiated in October 2016 following reports of critical gaps in some locations in Borno and to decide on possible scale up through deployment of rapid response teams. “In addition, the WFP is planning a review in all currently targeted Local Government Areas (LGAs) to determine the suitability of the programmes and modalities of assistance according to context,” according to Martin Ahimbisibve, Nutritional Officer, WFP.
Despite the flurry of bleak reports about the situation in Borno and other parts of northeast Nigeria, the situation, according to Mohammed Kanar, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) coordinator for the country’s northeast region, is improving. Kanar revealed that the Borno State government is doing a lot to alleviate the suffering of displaced persons living in the state’s IDP camps. According to him, despite the increase in the number of arrivals to the IDP camps, NEMA and state agencies are doing their best to ameliorate the displaced persons’ woes.
According to Kanar, it is difficult to determine the actual NGOs with a mission to truly help the IDPs and those that are merely claiming to be what they aren’t. “Many NGOs and journalists come to exploit IDPs and make money from their living conditions. Some foreign journalist will come here and deliberately look out for pictures that will generate revulsion. Some even doctor the pictures. Imagine someone pouring stones in food and telling six or seven kids to dip their hands in the food. Then he will take the picture and publish it claiming the children are forced to eat stones with food because of hunger. Some will come and deliberately take pictures of women relaxing in their tents. These poor women have been driven from their homes. They try to loosen up and relax in their temporary accommodation, like they would do at home and some shady journalist will come and take pictures of such women claiming they are forced to live half-naked because they do not have access to clothes and other basic provisions. That is very bad and dishonest,” said Kanar.
Gov. Shettima lambasts NGOs for misappropriating $334m
Just recently, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, accused some NGOs for alleged misappropriations of about $334 million (N133.6 billion) on “humanitarian interventions and assistance” for Boko Haram victims in the state and north-east sub-region of the country.
Even though Shettima did not disclose the names of affected NGOs, he said that since the commencement of Boko Haram crisis, the situation has been misrepresented and exploited by humanitarian workers.
Shettima made the allegations during an official visit of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), Deputy Regional Director for West and East Africa, Beatrice Mutali, at the Government House in Maiduguri. He said that the people of Borno State are the ones that suffered much in the hands of Boko Haram for several years, noting that they do not deserve to be sidelined or cheated by some desperate money seekers under the auspices of local and international humanitarian assistance for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
We have been making progress in terms of reach —WFP Head of Operations, Maiduguri Abdi Farah
Most pressing challenges
Northeast Nigeria is a complex region. WFP has was initially absent in northeast Nigeria because of the region’s complex situation. Establishing offices has not being easy given the region’s complex situation. It’s a very complex emergency situation, one of the worst in the African region today. Eight years of conflict have virtually affected all the sectors of the region’s economy and social structure. Education, health, food security and agriculture.
We suffer lack of access to the region’s most affected parts. Lack of partnership is also another issue we have to contend with. There are areas we cannot send staff or volunteers to because of the state of insecurity in the areas. Staffing, security challenges in terms of access and bringing on board the partnerships needed to make impactful contributions in the region has been challenging.
Yet we have been making progress in terms of reach. We are reaching a larger number of people. But we have adopted a more progressive approach.
IDPs left out of the support system
We are making efforts to partner with the other NGOs to extend our reach. We intend to go beyond the official coverage areas and get to areas otherwise inaccessible to us.
The crisis induced by the Boko Haram insurgency remains the main driving factor of instability in northeast Nigeria and has the potential to cause further displacements and increase food insecurity, according to the WFP. Challenges to reaching people in need remain, due to high levels of insecurity and hence restricted access. A recent trend of ambushes on military and police convoys along the main road axis outside Maiduguri is currently limiting road missions.
The International Airport in Abuja is due to close from 8 March to 18 April, for a total period of six weeks, in order to conduct urgently required repairs. Most international flights are planned to be diverted through alternate airports.
WFP response
WFP has stepped up to meet the immense challenges in northeast Nigeria, and successfully achieved the rapid scale up of food assistance to over one million conflict-affected people in Borno and Yobe States. The organisation assists through cash-based transfers, in-kind food assistance, and specialized nutritious food distributions has been significantly scaling up – from 160,000 people reached in October to over one million in December 2016 and January 2017.
Efforts will continue throughout 2017 and WFP plans to reach 1.3 million people amongst the most vulnerable in February, while a budget revision is underway to reach even a larger number of beneficiaries.
Due the multidimensional nature of the crisis, WFP has adopted an agile response, using the most appropriate and context-specific transfer modalities and delivery mechanisms to address the needs. WFP uses either food- or cash-based transfers to support displaced people living in camps or with host communities, as well as vulnerable host populations.
Food and nutrition assistance
As of February 15, across Borno and Yobe States, 617,350 beneficiaries – most of them internally displaced, in camps or in host communities – benefited from food distributions, and close to 34,000 people were assisted with cash in areas with viable market conditions. Nutritious food has also been distributed to 153,500 children aged 6 to 59 months and to over 11,000 pregnant and nursing women. In implementing its food assistance programmes, particularly for in-kind and nutritious food assistance, WFP ensures that complementarity of assistance with SEMA and other partners (both national and international NGOs) operating on the ground in order to maximize resources and improve. In February, WFP, both directly and through partnerships is targeting a total of 1.3 million beneficiaries in Borno and Yobe States. As of February 15, WFP had reached a total of 692,400 beneficiaries through cash-based transfers (CBT), in-kind food distributions and provision of nutritious food to children 6 to 59 months and pregnant and nursing women.
WFP is reviewing the expansion of its CBT coverage and, exploring alternative methodologies for cash assistance. For instance, on February 8, the first distribution of e-vouchers and their redemption at retail shops took place in Maiduguri. To overcome the access challenges and reach those most in need in unsecure and difficult-to-reach areas, WFP and UNICEF implemented a Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM). The RRM sends staff to the sites by either helicopter, either armoured vehicles (AV), while all food and other cargo is transported overland. All interventions are closely coordinated with Nigerian communities and the government. WFP focuses on general distributions and blanket supplementary feeding for under-five children and pregnant and lactating women, while
UNICEF supports a range of sectors, including treatment of severe acute alnutrition, water, sanitation, and health. Since the beginning of February RRM teams reached 240,000 beneficiaries with General Food Distributions and 23,700 children with Plumpy’Sup in Ngala and Dikwa LGAs.
The food security situation in the next months running up to the lean season needs to be carefully monitored and calls for comprehensive support of food, nutrition water and health assistance. WFP and FAO submitted a concept note to donors and partners with the aim to address the emergency needs of vulnerable groups during the lean season starting May to October 2017. The joint response will take an integrated two track emergency response approach; combining emergency food assistance provided by WFP through in-Kind Food or Cash Based Transfers (CBT), and FAO fast tracking of small holder agriculture inputs.
•WFP partners with local farmers to improve agricultural production in Borno’s devastated farmlands
Cash-based transfers
WFP is also reviewing the expansion of its CBT coverage and, exploring alternative methodologies for cash assistance. On 08 February the first distribution of e-vouchers and redemption at retail shops took place in Maiduguri. The total transfer value of N23,550 naira (per month, per household), subject to revision based on prevailing market prices, includes: N21, 550 naira to be used for 20 different food items: (staple grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, etc.) from WFP contracted shops and N2,000 naira multipurpose cash, cashed out by the same retailers.
Shettima accused NGOs of operating in Borno State and the north-east sub-region without any concrete and visible succour or relief on displaced persons. “I can confess to you that there are some NGOs who have collected and claimed to have spent about $334 US million (N133.6 billion) on humanitarian interventions and assistance to our Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). But this is very much unfortunate that there is nothing positive to show or impact on improving the living conditions of displaced persons in camps.
“Even me as a governor, I don’t have a bullet proof vehicle or using bullet proof car while driving. But I understand that some NGOs’ officials in the state are using bullet proof vehicles; while cruising on Maiduguri roads and the streets.
“I was quite amazed that about $334 million was spent on Borno State but, mind you, out of that maybe $50 million was used to procure bulletproof vehicles,” Shettima said. “If you give me something with one hand and you turn to collect it with another hand, why are you saying you have given me anything?” He alleged that more than 500 U.N. workers had invaded Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, and that their presence and expenditures are “questionable” given their lack of impact on some of the two million refugees in the state.
However, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Nigeria, Orla Fagan, said the vehicles were provided by donors and not acquired by funds for refugees. It would be recalled that a UNICEF armored car saved the lives of several aid workers when Boko Haram attacked it with a rocket and sprayed it with gunfire last July.
Fagan, the U.N. spokeswoman, said 200 international U.N. staff there “travel out every day to areas that have become recently accessible to the humanitarian community.” She said another 250 international staff from private aid agencies also are based in Maiduguri. According to the United Nations, about half a million people are starving in dangerous-to-reach parts of Borno State. But even in accessible Maiduguri, child refugees are dying of malnutrition.
The child starvation time-bomb…
At the backdrop of the state government and NGOs support, the United Nations (UN) has been accused of failing to act quickly enough to save hundreds of thousands of lives in the northeast region. Few months ago, Isabelle Mouniaman, head of the Médecins Sans Frontières operations in Nigeria, said MSF has been raising the alarm in northern Nigeria for two years and UN organisations have failed to respond.
She also accused the Federal Government of deliberate negligence and attempting to conceal the scale of the crisis.
“We’ve been calling to the UN, to the headquarters of Unicef, WFP [World Food Programme], OCHA and their response has been ‘Yes, we’re doing this and that’… But you cannot just be satisfied to say you built X number of latrines, delivered X bags of food when people are dying. It’s not enough,” Mouniaman said.
“The Red Cross is doing their job, MSF is doing their job, but the vast majority of humanitarian organisations are failing in their responsibility towards the crisis in Borno.”
This is about as bad as it gets. There’s only one step worse and that’s a famine.
International aid agencies have focused on Maiduguri’s overstretched camps, but more than 80 per cent of displaced people in the city, around two million people, are living among the community, the vast majority without access to food aid or medical support.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has categorised 4.4 million people in the Lake Chad region as “severely food insecure” – meaning they are in need of urgent food aid. Toby Lanzer, UN assistant secretary general and OCHA’s regional humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel, said: “This is about as bad as it gets. There’s only one step worse and I’ve not come across that situation in 20 years of doing this work and that’s a famine. We have to step in and quickly or we are going to have hundreds of thousands at risk of dying in the north-east of Nigeria.”
Lanzer said UN agencies have not had the resources necessary to tackle the crisis and has called on international donors to prevent a greater catastrophe. Of the $279m (£210m) required, only $75m has so far been secured.
Impact of the crisis on minors
The accumulation of stress over time and the long-term consequences of distressing events can have an intensely disturbing and potentially far-reaching impact on children’s social, emotional, cognitive and spiritual well-being and development, according David Omonafor, a clinical psychiatrist. According to him, “Analysis of global data, for example, has shown how protective factors such as parental support and moral guidance can help children overcome horrific experiences and help to promote individual healing and community reconciliation.
But that could only be enjoyed by children whose parents survive the violence long enough to protect them and cater to their health needs. True, living in environments characterized by poor sanitation, over-congestion and poor shelter, has exposed many displaced kids to all kinds of diseases and infections.
In addition to these factors, community members also linked children’s poor health to poor feeding which often results in malnourishment. Amidst all this, displaced people have limited access to basic health care services. There is a shortage of qualified health staff, those available are poorly paid and operate in inadequate working conditions and non-functional health facilities. All these pose challenges to delivery of services. Under such circumstance, children are sometimes given inadequate doses of much needed drugs instead of a full dose, so they can’t get relief. The situation is worse for internally displaced children who in most cases have no access to medical aid. Yet their parents are too poor to afford medical fees charged at local health centres or hospitals.
Congestion makes it difficult for families to live together the way they would have loved. Limited blankets, mattresses and mats in homes lead to the sharing of sleeping space among family members. Outside the refugee camps, more children complained that this was not only uncomfortable but was a source of sexual abuse. For instance, Nimotalayi Uthman, a 14-year-old teenager from Baga, revealed that she had escaped being raped twice by a cousin and fellow squatter in a makeshift shelter.
And due to the trauma experienced by many displaced children, it is often very difficult to raise children the way a parent may wish to. Children, according to the UNHCR expert psychological opinion, are often frustrated, easily agitated and hardly listen or take advice or instructions. They have difficulties concentrating in class. They often get agitated and are in the habit of threatening teachers. However, boys, compared to girls, were found to have a lot more worries over their future because of the cultural expectation that they are the future bread earners for their families. Without access to schooling, they have no hope of living a better life in the years to come since they have nothing to do to earn a living. This deepens their frustration.
Flight across borders can also be dangerous and uncertain, subjecting many to exploitation and abuse. Idiat Bello, a social worker, noted that many children in flight are usually in need of special attention. That is because at a crucial and vulnerable time in their lives, they are brutally uprooted from their comfort zones and exposed to extreme danger and brutality, she said.
Children in camps
In times of conflicts, children’s traditional systems of social protection come under severe strain or break down completely and there are often high levels of violence, alcohol and substance abuse, family quarrels and sexual assault according Peter Adamu, a Zinder, Niger-based social worker and volunteer. According to him, adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable and even the youngest children can be affected when they witness an attack on a mother or a sister.
One important aspect of relief that particularly affects women and children is the distribution of resources such as food, water, firewood and plastic sheeting. Control of these resources represents power. Men are usually in charge of distribution and often abuse their power by demanding bribes or sexual favours. This puts adolescent girls and women at risk, according to the UNHCR. The UNHCR alleged that the first days and weeks of a mass displacement of people usually result in high mortality rates for children. Among displaced children, measles, malaria and malnutrition account for 60 to 80 per cent of reported deaths.
Thousands of children die each year as a result of armed violence from knives, bullets, bombs and landmines. But many more die from the indirect consequences of warfare as a result of the disruption in food supplies, for example, and the destruction of health services, water systems and sanitation. But beyond the physical dangers, children may also suffer lasting psychological damage as a result of the loss of their families. Children and adolescents also have very different capacities, and the lines between them are often blurred. In a child’s early years, the focus is on survival, with special attention needed in health, nutrition and protection. However, the ways in which children respond to the stress of armed conflict also depend on their particular circumstances. These in turn are affected by such factors as age, sex, personality type, personal and family history, and cultural background.
After the bloodshed…
Recently, the Borno State government revealed its plans to evacuate about 30, 000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) back to their communities. Malam Ahmed Satome, the chairman, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), explained that the action also followed the successful relocation of about 20,000 IDPs back to their communities. Satome said that the relocation of the first batch of IDPs back home had helped in boosting the economy of the state in the last few months. According to him, “We have so far relocated 20, 000 IDPs back home after their communities were liberated by the military. The IDPs are from Gamboru-Ngala, Monguno, Mobbar, Gwoza, Dikwa and Mafa Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
The exercise was conducted in line with the Kampala Convention which stipulates that the return of the IDPs back home must be voluntary and conducted in a dignified manner. Thirty thousand IDPs have shown interest to return home, but a number of steps must be taken before their eventual return.”
He said the government had to provide a resettlement package to each of the IDPS to facilitate their reintegration. The SEMA boss also said such support was always provided in collaboration with the donor agencies and other international bodies working to assist the IDPs. Without an immediate and full response to the acute needs of survivors of the crisis, the children in particular, within the coming year, the situation according to the WFP, may further deteriorate into a chronic crisis that could result in protracted assistance requirements from the humanitarian community. It is therefore essential that sufficient resources are made available to stabilise the food security and nutrition crisis. For its food assistance operation for instance, WFP said it requires about $219 million until July 2017.
No doubt, Boko Haram’s protracted terrorism, besides its impact on minors, has left Borno’s farmlands devastated and abandoned. At the backdrop of sporadic attacks by remnants of the terrorist group’s ragtag army, starvation looms largely across the strife-torn region. But while NGOs claim that the lingering hunger crisis is claiming lives even in Maiduguri, the state capital and hub of humanitarian and security forces in the region, the state government dismiss their claims as unfair and wanton exaggeration.
‘Their refuge is a slum; home to hundreds crammed into rickety and makeshift tents, their hearts are fraught with freshly borne agonies and unspeakable narratives. “We are all very devastated. Most of us have lost loved ones. When Boko Haram invaded our town, they ruined our lives. They burnt our homes and killed everybody’
One indisputable fact however, is that the city has doubled in size in and currently hosts over two million displaced people. Food prices are soaring in the markets, where it now costs a fortune to acquire staple food; for instance, a large bag of rice allegedly sells between N18, 000 and N22, 000.
The most distressing reality however, unfurls outside Maiduguri, in the frontiers where peasant families are murdered and displaced in the throes of ongoing anti-terrorism war. General Leo Irabor, Nigeria Army Theatre Commander of the northeast region, argued that the armed forces are making headway liberating former Boko Haram strongholds from the vice grip of the terrorist group. “We are making progress and life is returning to normal in the areas that were formerly under Boko Haram’s control. We have liberated the communities and life is picking up in the affected regions. Very soon, it will all be over,” he said.
Nonetheless, aid agencies fear hundreds of thousands of people remain trapped and cut off by Boko Haram and the military operation against them. As the Nigerian army liberates the affected regions, the true scale of the catastrophe attains proportion; survivors narrate gory scenes of children starving to death while their parents and guardians watch helplessly.
Fiona Lovatt, a humanitarian and founder of Children of Borno (COB), said the government and other stakeholders should pay greater attention to the plight of imperiled kids of Borno. She said the government needs to be more proactive in its measures to salvage the state’s grasslands and save survivors of Boko Haram’s terrorism from starvation. Lovatt supports orphans and other vulnerable minors by offering them a safe haven and a chance at rehabilitation.
Recently, she initiated a programme by which beneficiaries of her support are encourage to tend gardens and practice subsistence farming. The gardens are made by children in her care, as part of their reintegration and rehabilitation, to provide soup and salad ingredients.
“Their widowed mothers didn’t lift a hand. There are several other gardens tended by orphans in Maiduguri; so doing, their feeding costs are reduced, their quality of life is improved as well as their nutrition…The Chad basin, I read recently, has topsoil 1,000th deep, having collected all the morass of millions of years from Algeria and Sudan. There may not be another place in the world with this quality of soil. I never saw such lushness come out of the sand, yet millions of Borno farmers have lost the opportunity to be self-sufficient because they have been alienated from their land holdings and the city has not given them one square metre to plant a tomato. It is very strange that the Boko Haram activity has mainly resulted in a land clearance. Who needs that land empty? Who has their eye on the best soil and water in a world where food and water are becoming hard to come by?” she said.
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