Life Inside IDP Camps
Life Inside IDP Camps
This Day Live, 02 Feb 2015
URL: http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/life-inside-idp-camps/200689/#.VNAUzxSv7Cs.email
Nigerians who have been displaced from their homes by the Boko Haram militants recount their ordeals. Michael Olugbode writes
Abba Kolo was barely eight years and a primary two pupil of a public school in Damboa, when the insurgents attacked his town, his home and school, all at the same time.
His father, Modu Kolo, a grocery seller, was slaughtered by the "Allah crusaders" right before him. He was even lucky to be alive.
He recounted a gripping experience of how bullets flew over him during the attack. “We saw the fighters coming in our direction, shooting and shouting,” he said.
Some of the people he knew were not fortunate enough to escape the bullets like him.
They were either felled by the flying bullets or captured by the insurgents who later conscripted them into "holy fighters".
But for young Abba, his days were over in his beloved Damboa. He had become internally displaced like several others in his village.
His mother Memunat, had to smuggle him and his two other siblings out of the town, which had fallen under the control of the insurgents. He was forced to trek through the bushes to Maiduguri, a journey of many kilometres. It was the hardest part of his experience as he had to sleep in the open with little food and water and nightmares, with the memory of his father's slaughtering always creeping in through his dreams.
He was exhausted when he finally got into Maiduguri, but his mother did not know where to take him and his siblings, but alas they were picked up by government officials and taken to a camp which has now become his new home.
When Abba got to the camp, he found it difficult to breathe and had thought he was going to die, but he did not, as he was treated by some medical officers at the camp who also counselled him on the death of his father. Now, he has new hopes to one day go back to his beloved Damboa.
At the camp, Abba has a new home where he is being fed well and has now joined up with the school established in the camp, as he continues to pick up the pieces of his life.
“After losing my father and made to leave Damboa, I thought all hope was lost, because even the journey to Maiduguri for three days was tortuous,” Kolo said. “When I got to the camp I was a living dead, but I was treated by the medical personnel at the camp and I have fully recovered my strength and my father has since stopped visiting me in my dreams.
“I am enjoying every life on this camp as I go to school in the morning and throughout the day I play around with my friends on the camp. The feeding has been better than the food at home as I eat rice often and even have meat on my meal which was absent at home.”
The story of Abba is similar to that of thousands of other children living inside Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps scattered all over Maiduguri.
Another IDP, Yagana Ibrahim, a 25-year-old housewife was made to leave Konduga, because of the attack on the town by members of the Boko Haram sect. She was over eight months pregnant when she was forced to live her home in tears, after her husband was killed. She also managed to sneak out two of her children, and they had to trek some distance, before she was given a lift to Maiduguri.
In Maiduguri, she was directed to one of the camps for the IDPs and the stress of the journey impacted terribly on her. She had a forced labour and was assisted by officers at the camp to one of the general hospitals in the town for delivery. Yagana was lucky enough to deliver a boy with all expenses paid by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Back at the camp, she was allowed special privileges. She was given sanitary pads, diapers and other things a nursing mother would need.
“When I lost my husband and had to smuggle out my two children from Konduga,” she said, “I could not stop weeping as I thought how I was going to be able to take care of the children and the one I was expecting. I was traumatised and that must have been responsible for my early delivery, I was taken to a hospital from the camp and my children are now well fed.
“I cannot forget the delivery of Abba (the new baby). He was given all that a baby needs. I must confess that this is the first time any of my children would be wearing pampers (diapers). We were poor and local people and things like this are not known and unaffordable to us."
Yagana also stated that the two other children had since been enrolled at the camp’s school and that though the two of them came too fragile and ill, "they are full of life and having fun with their mates in the camp."
According to one of the main voices of the people in the state, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, the federal government has touched the lives of the displaced persons in the state through its agency, NEMA. He however lamented that there are many other federal agencies that should equally come to the assistance of the IDPs to make them fully feel the impact of government.
On the day to day administration of the IDPs camps, the information officer of NEMA’s northeast zonal office, Maiduguri, Mallam AbdulKadir Ibrahim, “mostly, the day to day management of the camps is the responsibility of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Red Cross, security operatives and Civilian JTF."
He explained that in each of the camps, there is camp management committee chosen from among the IDPs and the stakeholders. “At the arrival, after they (IDPs) have been conveyed to the camp by the Borno state government, NEMA comes in, facilitates all the stakeholders to register the IDPs, offer first aid to those with one problem or the other and exhaustion,” Ibrahim said.
“After getting a specific number, the needs assessment is conducted to find out the immediate need of the IDPs and, where possible, provide them immediately. Those items are always beddings and food items.”
He added: “The special needs of IDPs like those with reccurring medical condition, people with diabetes, high blood pressure, pregnant women and nursing mother, are identified with a view to providing their special needs, like special diets, baby food, toys, feeding bottles, sanitary pads, diapers, etc.”
Ibrahim confessed that: “The management of the camp does not lie in one body alone as other interested parties, like MSF-Medicine Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders), United Nations, Ox-farm, Save the Children, Save School Initiative, individuals, corporate organisations, and all the parties that have something for the camp now bring it to the committee who dispense it to the IDPs.
No matter how light Ibrahim may try to explain the importance of NEMA to the life of the numerous IDPs camps, the role of the agency as the mainstay of the camp cannot be wished away. In 2014 alone, over 600 relief materials were given to IDPs within and outside the established camps in Borno state.
To the internally displaced persons recently from Baga alone, NEMA gave out 600 bags of rice, 300 bags of maize, 300 bags of guinea corn, 300 bags of beans, 500 instant noodle, 200 Soap and Detergent.
Other items donated include: 500 pieces of women wears, 400 pieces of men wear, 500 buckets, Bucket, 800 mattresses, 100 vegetable oil, 1000 nylon mats and 1000 blankets.
This is what is replicated at each of the twelve established camps in Borno state where 108,473 IDPs are presently lodged; the quantum of assistance from the agency to about 700,000 IDPs staying with their relatives are numerous, their numbers are captured through their political and traditional leaders and given relief materials at the point of their needs.
The assistance being provided by NEMA is helping millions of IDPs to adjust to a new life in Borno State and in the other parts of the troubled north-eastern region.
Though NEMA has done much, it recognises the fact that more needs to be done. Until the internally displaced persons are brought back to their rehabilitated home, their efforts are still palliative and can never be satisfactory.
This was captured by the northeast zonal coordinator of NEMA, Mohammed Kanar. He explained that the federal government was only planning for the end of the insurgency, to begin a massive rebuilding plan for the northeast. He has promised that no matter the contribution of the agency to the IDPs, it won't get tired until the whole crisis is resolved and they (victims of the insurgency) have been assisted to a position that they can provide food on their tables for themselves.
Kanar said: “The agreement we have with the people is to continue to provide relief materials for them until they are finally relocated back to their homes and assisted to have their lives back, we in NEMA will never be tired of giving out relief materials no matter the number of time.”
Abba Kolo was barely eight years and a primary two pupil of a public school in Damboa, when the insurgents attacked his town, his home and school, all at the same time.
His father, Modu Kolo, a grocery seller, was slaughtered by the "Allah crusaders" right before him. He was even lucky to be alive.
He recounted a gripping experience of how bullets flew over him during the attack. “We saw the fighters coming in our direction, shooting and shouting,” he said.
Some of the people he knew were not fortunate enough to escape the bullets like him.
They were either felled by the flying bullets or captured by the insurgents who later conscripted them into "holy fighters".
But for young Abba, his days were over in his beloved Damboa. He had become internally displaced like several others in his village.
His mother Memunat, had to smuggle him and his two other siblings out of the town, which had fallen under the control of the insurgents. He was forced to trek through the bushes to Maiduguri, a journey of many kilometres. It was the hardest part of his experience as he had to sleep in the open with little food and water and nightmares, with the memory of his father's slaughtering always creeping in through his dreams.
He was exhausted when he finally got into Maiduguri, but his mother did not know where to take him and his siblings, but alas they were picked up by government officials and taken to a camp which has now become his new home.
When Abba got to the camp, he found it difficult to breathe and had thought he was going to die, but he did not, as he was treated by some medical officers at the camp who also counselled him on the death of his father. Now, he has new hopes to one day go back to his beloved Damboa.
At the camp, Abba has a new home where he is being fed well and has now joined up with the school established in the camp, as he continues to pick up the pieces of his life.
“After losing my father and made to leave Damboa, I thought all hope was lost, because even the journey to Maiduguri for three days was tortuous,” Kolo said. “When I got to the camp I was a living dead, but I was treated by the medical personnel at the camp and I have fully recovered my strength and my father has since stopped visiting me in my dreams.
“I am enjoying every life on this camp as I go to school in the morning and throughout the day I play around with my friends on the camp. The feeding has been better than the food at home as I eat rice often and even have meat on my meal which was absent at home.”
The story of Abba is similar to that of thousands of other children living inside Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps scattered all over Maiduguri.
Another IDP, Yagana Ibrahim, a 25-year-old housewife was made to leave Konduga, because of the attack on the town by members of the Boko Haram sect. She was over eight months pregnant when she was forced to live her home in tears, after her husband was killed. She also managed to sneak out two of her children, and they had to trek some distance, before she was given a lift to Maiduguri.
In Maiduguri, she was directed to one of the camps for the IDPs and the stress of the journey impacted terribly on her. She had a forced labour and was assisted by officers at the camp to one of the general hospitals in the town for delivery. Yagana was lucky enough to deliver a boy with all expenses paid by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Back at the camp, she was allowed special privileges. She was given sanitary pads, diapers and other things a nursing mother would need.
“When I lost my husband and had to smuggle out my two children from Konduga,” she said, “I could not stop weeping as I thought how I was going to be able to take care of the children and the one I was expecting. I was traumatised and that must have been responsible for my early delivery, I was taken to a hospital from the camp and my children are now well fed.
“I cannot forget the delivery of Abba (the new baby). He was given all that a baby needs. I must confess that this is the first time any of my children would be wearing pampers (diapers). We were poor and local people and things like this are not known and unaffordable to us."
Yagana also stated that the two other children had since been enrolled at the camp’s school and that though the two of them came too fragile and ill, "they are full of life and having fun with their mates in the camp."
According to one of the main voices of the people in the state, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, the federal government has touched the lives of the displaced persons in the state through its agency, NEMA. He however lamented that there are many other federal agencies that should equally come to the assistance of the IDPs to make them fully feel the impact of government.
On the day to day administration of the IDPs camps, the information officer of NEMA’s northeast zonal office, Maiduguri, Mallam AbdulKadir Ibrahim, “mostly, the day to day management of the camps is the responsibility of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Red Cross, security operatives and Civilian JTF."
He explained that in each of the camps, there is camp management committee chosen from among the IDPs and the stakeholders. “At the arrival, after they (IDPs) have been conveyed to the camp by the Borno state government, NEMA comes in, facilitates all the stakeholders to register the IDPs, offer first aid to those with one problem or the other and exhaustion,” Ibrahim said.
“After getting a specific number, the needs assessment is conducted to find out the immediate need of the IDPs and, where possible, provide them immediately. Those items are always beddings and food items.”
He added: “The special needs of IDPs like those with reccurring medical condition, people with diabetes, high blood pressure, pregnant women and nursing mother, are identified with a view to providing their special needs, like special diets, baby food, toys, feeding bottles, sanitary pads, diapers, etc.”
Ibrahim confessed that: “The management of the camp does not lie in one body alone as other interested parties, like MSF-Medicine Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders), United Nations, Ox-farm, Save the Children, Save School Initiative, individuals, corporate organisations, and all the parties that have something for the camp now bring it to the committee who dispense it to the IDPs.
No matter how light Ibrahim may try to explain the importance of NEMA to the life of the numerous IDPs camps, the role of the agency as the mainstay of the camp cannot be wished away. In 2014 alone, over 600 relief materials were given to IDPs within and outside the established camps in Borno state.
To the internally displaced persons recently from Baga alone, NEMA gave out 600 bags of rice, 300 bags of maize, 300 bags of guinea corn, 300 bags of beans, 500 instant noodle, 200 Soap and Detergent.
Other items donated include: 500 pieces of women wears, 400 pieces of men wear, 500 buckets, Bucket, 800 mattresses, 100 vegetable oil, 1000 nylon mats and 1000 blankets.
This is what is replicated at each of the twelve established camps in Borno state where 108,473 IDPs are presently lodged; the quantum of assistance from the agency to about 700,000 IDPs staying with their relatives are numerous, their numbers are captured through their political and traditional leaders and given relief materials at the point of their needs.
The assistance being provided by NEMA is helping millions of IDPs to adjust to a new life in Borno State and in the other parts of the troubled north-eastern region.
Though NEMA has done much, it recognises the fact that more needs to be done. Until the internally displaced persons are brought back to their rehabilitated home, their efforts are still palliative and can never be satisfactory.
This was captured by the northeast zonal coordinator of NEMA, Mohammed Kanar. He explained that the federal government was only planning for the end of the insurgency, to begin a massive rebuilding plan for the northeast. He has promised that no matter the contribution of the agency to the IDPs, it won't get tired until the whole crisis is resolved and they (victims of the insurgency) have been assisted to a position that they can provide food on their tables for themselves.
Kanar said: “The agreement we have with the people is to continue to provide relief materials for them until they are finally relocated back to their homes and assisted to have their lives back, we in NEMA will never be tired of giving out relief materials no matter the number of time.”