Fasting for Ramadan, famine, illness and harsh weather are making it extremely difficult for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Dalori camp in Kofa Village to keep on going and they are begging the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for much-needed aid to help them survive.
Vulnerable widows, infants, children and the elderly were particularly at risk.
Most of the IDPs in the camp were originally farmers from Bama, Konduga and Gwoza in Borno State. They fled their villages because of persistent deadly attacks by insurgents.
RNI spoke to two of the widows.
Falmata Bukar said: “I have four children to feed. After my husband was killed by Boko-Haram [Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS)] insurgents, I started working as a labourer on someone else’s farm. Sometimes I still have to beg on the streets and go to the nearby forest to search for firewood to support my family. I have no money. I desperately need help from the government and humanitarian agencies. I don’t know how much longer we will be able to survive without help.”
Zara Modu said: “My children and I suffer because we do not have enough food. I lost my husband in the insurgency before I came to this camp. Apart from some labour work and collecting firewood, I do not have any other means of making a living, especially now that it is Ramadan.”
Mu’azu Garbar, the chairman of Dalori camp, said living conditions for all of the people were extremely hard, especially for vulnerable people, such as the elderly, widows, infants and children.
He said there were some orphans in the camp who had lost both parents. Some of the older siblings had been forced to become the head of the house and they were struggling to cope.
“Everyone in the camp is struggling. We are hungry. The World Food Programme (WFP) used to give us food and even that was not enough to sustain the many people living here. But since September last year, the WFP stopped providing food assistance, so we no longer even get their help.”
He told RNI that many families, who used to do labour work or collect firewood to get money so that they could feed their families, were so hungry and weak that they could no longer do even that. The harsh weather, coupled with fasting, was too much and they did not have the strength to work.
“We have been living like this without food and humanitarian aid for almost seven months now. Recently, we heard that the Borno State governor, Babagana Umara Zulum, had distributed cash and food items to some IDPs in the Mafa Local Government Area. We are begging the governor not to forget us in Dalori. We need him to make the same gesture to IDPs here.”
Garbar said that residents of Dalori also desperately needed healthcare. The lack of food, fasting and harsh weather had added to their plight and many were falling ill.
“We have health personnel working at the clinic in the camp. But there is not enough medicine. The United Nations Children’s Fund [UNICEF] provided medical supplies to the clinic, but we need more. People are getting sick – especially the elderly, infants and children – and we do not have enough medicine to treat them. If they become seriously ill, I don’t know whether we will be able to help them survive. We are really struggling and we urgently need aid from the government and humanitarian agencies.”
SHETTIMA LAWAN MONGUNO
