Hundreds of the Internally Displaced Persons in Bama Camp
are at the risk of dying, according to the International Centre For
Investigative Reporting.
On May 5,
2016, health workers were alerted that some people needed help within
the Internally Displaced Persons, IDP, camp in Bama, 70 kilometres from
Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
(pictured is a plate of soup meant for seven
people!)
On
getting there, five women were seen lying on the ground, some gasping
while others were barely conscious. Three of the women were with
children, including a little girl sucking her mother's breast while her
brother lay on the ground with his head on the mother's leg.
The only means of transportation in the camp are handcarts but by the
time some were brought to transport the women to the clinic, two of
them had died, one of them being the woman whose daughter was still
sucking her breast.
The little children were separated from the dead mother and handed
over to their grandmother, an elderly woman sitting nearby, who herself
was so weak that she could only watch helplessly while her daughter
died. The little boy died the following day.
The women’s corpses were left there in the open and only buried after
24 hours. This was because the men who were called to prepare the
bodies for burial refused, as there was no water to wash the corpses and
bathe themselves after the burial.
“They told me they had not had water to drink since morning and were
dehydrated and too weak to do anything,” a health worker in the camp
told the icirnigeria.org on condition of anonymity.
Health workers, camp officials and security agents said displaced
persons in Bama face serious humanitarian crisis unless something is
done urgently.
According to a report by a local non governmental organisation, NGO,
Bama Community Peace Initiative, BAM-COPI, to the Protection Sector
Working Group of Borno State under the United Nations High Commission
for Refugees, UNHCR, a daily death toll of 18 to 21 is recorded in the
camp due to starvation, thirst and lack healthcare and poor hygiene.
"Food is cooked on a day in a very poor quality and low ration in all
the six designated kitchens (each) with an average population of about
4,000 and above eating virtually once a day," the report, signed by
Ibrahim Mohammed, stated.
It added that from May 4 – 20, when the report was written, around
11 children aged between 0 – 15 were buried daily. Following the report,
the icirnigeria.org
learnt that a meeting was called by the UNHCR protection officer, with
the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, in attendance. At the
meeting, a taskforce named Operation Save Bama was formed.
The taskforce met with the Borno State Emergency Management Agency,
SEMA, on June 1 and the following day the state emergency agency
increased its presence in the camp.
Our reporter saw some trailers of relief items when he visited Bama
on June 6, including one containing pots, but in spite of this, feeding
has remained once a day. Most children in the camp look very
malnourished and unkempt
Read the full original report here:
No comments:
Post a Comment