Niger IDP camps need food, medical attention, says official

Yusuf Bala, desk officer in charge of the internally-displaced persons (IDP) camps in Niger, says many victims of crisis across the state lack food and medical attention.

Bala spoke on Friday to mark the 2022 World Humanitarian Day with the theme ‘it takes a village’, celebrated annually on August 19.

World Humanitarian Day is celebrated to honour the many volunteers, professionals and persons affected by crisis who provide urgent healthcare services, food, water, protection and other essential services around the world.

According to him, many IDPs have been forced to return to their banditry-ravaged communities owing to a lack of food at the camp and some of them who had returned to their villages are either killed or kidnapped.

He said IDPs find it difficult to access healthcare services owing to financial constraints and that the camps do not have a medical centre to attend to sick persons.

“Life in the camp is very difficult, for their survival, they need food, they need medical attention as we don’t have anything for them on ground,” he told TheCable.

“In this rainy season, there are many cases of malaria, and typhoid and many children in the camp need medical attention to curtail some of these infections.

“During the rainy season, most of the men at the camp return to their villages to farm leaving the women behind. Despite the danger in the areas, they must feed.

“Some of the women in the camp were recently widowed. Their husbands were killed when they returned to their villages in search of food.

“IDPs living in Erena camp in Shiroro LGA are rarely assisted by NGOs or other humanitarian workers because of the serious banditry activities in the area.

“From the onset, a part of this camp was a clinic but as time goes on it was closed down as the government was not ready to give us drugs again.”

He called on the government, and humanitarian workers across the country not to relent in their effort to assist IDPs with protection and support.

However, the need for humanitarian support in Nigeria continues to rise as violence, conflict and other natural disasters continue to displace citizens across the country.

The humanitarian crisis in the country has devastated agricultural production and disrupted various means of livelihood and access to essential services.

Many Nigerian communities in need of humanitarian support have been abandoned by humanitarian workers owing to the security threat in the regions. An estimated 2.2 million people are internally displaced and in acute need of humanitarian and protection assistance.

Protection and provision of humanitarian services are crucial to the survival of IDPs, particularly women, girls and children living across camps, many of whom are at risk of gender-based violence and vulnerable to diseases.