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Group says over 30,000 IDPs need food protection, medical care in Borno, seeks urgent intervention

- Doctor without boarder has said that over 30,000 IDPs are in acute need of food protection

- The group's field communication offer, Abdulkareem Yakubu, said people’s immediate humanitarian needs were not being adequately addressed

- Yakubu noted that there should be urgent need for better coordination between the FG, UN and non-governmental organisations in scaling up the aid response in Borno

An international medical humanitarian organisation, Medicine Sans Frontiers (MSF) has advised that shelter, water, sanitation, food, protection and medical care must be scaled up urgently to avoid a catastrophe during the rainy season.

Legit.ng regional reporter in Borno, Ndahi Inusa, reports that the group said over 30,000 people who were forced to flee to the town of Monguno, Borno state, following renewed clashes that erupted late December, 2018, were in acute need of shelter, water, sanitation, food, protection, medical care and mental health support.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

In a statement issued Tuesday, April 2, by its field communication offer, Abdulkareem Yakubu, the group, also known as doctors without borders, said people’s immediate humanitarian needs were not being adequately addressed.

The group said there should be urgent need for better coordination between the Nigerian government, United Nations and non-governmental organisations in scaling up the aid response in Monguno so as to avoid a catastrophic situation with the outset of the rainy season expected in May.

"For the last ten years, people in Borno state have been caught up in a cycle of violence, displacement, and insecurity. People’s health are at risk due to the dire living conditions. The latest clashes have yet again forced tens of thousands from their homes, fields and livelihoods, and left them struggling to survive.

“People who recently arrived in Monguno fled their homelands leaving everything behind,” says MSF humanitarian affairs officer Musa Baba.

“They come from areas where they could farm. Now, they are sleeping on the streets or wherever they can find space, hungry, thirsty and exposed to very high temperatures during the day and low temperatures at night.”

It also said the major problem in Monguno was lack of land to build shelters for new arrivals, adding that thousands of recently displaced people have no space to settle and were living and sleeping in the middle of the town’s streets for weeks.

''MSF, along with some other humanitarian organisations, have built shelters in different camps and have capacity to accommodate more displaced people. MSF teams have set up 100 tents and are ready to put up 700 additional shelters

“The current situation, with very vulnerable people – women, children and the elderly – living out of doors, rather than in a camp or with the host community, increases the risk of abuses and the need for protection,” said Musa.

MSF, however, stressed that poor living conditions, with little sanitation and a lack of safe drinking water are putting displaced people in Monguno at risk of pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria, among other preventable diseases.

''With few latrines, most people use open defecation areas, which are likely to flood in the rainy season, worsening the health conditions.

''MSF is running a 10-bed emergency room for adults in a ministry of health facility in Monguno as well as providing people with mental health support.

''Following an accidental fire in stadium camp for displaced people in February, where 850 displaced families are sheltering, MSF distributed 500 kits of essential relief items including mats, tarpaulins, blankets, jerrycans, cooking equipment and hygiene items.

''The field communication officer has been working in Nigeria since 1996 and has had a permanent presence in Borno state since 2014.

''Our teams provide lifesaving medical care in north-eastern Nigeria, running projects in Gwoza, Maiduguri, Monguno, Ngala, Pulka and Damaturu, while our emergency teams respond to disease outbreaks and other urgent humanitarian needs'', the statement read.

READ ALSO: Obasanjo's comparison of Buhari with Atiku unfortunate, self-serving - BMO

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that in what could be described as a laudable development, a well-known Nigerian cleric, Pastor Sam Adeyemi, donated of a huge sum of money to a United Nations agency to help support Africans forced to flee their homes.

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