MSF calls for urgent support for Borno IDPs to avert disaster
NAN-H-22
Emergency
Maiduguri, Sept. 30, 2016 (NAN) The Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also called Doctors without Borders, on Friday appealed to the international community and donor agencies to provide support to hundreds of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno.
Mr Hugues Robert, the Head of MSF Emergency Response, said in a statement in Maiduguri that the humanitarian emergency in North-East Nigeria was reaching catastrophic levels.
He said a massive relief effort was needed immediately in remote areas as well as in the state capital.
“The desperate living conditions in Borno show the devastating impact of the ongoing conflict between Boko Haram terrorists and the Nigerian military.
“In several locations, people have sought refuge in towns or camps controlled by the military, and are entirely reliant on outside aid that does not reach them.
“Although a nutrition emergency was declared three months ago, there has been a serious failure to help the people of Borno.
“We are again calling for a massive relief effort to be deployed now,” Robert said.
He added: “On Sept. 19, MSF teams managed to reach the town of Ngala, where 80,000 displaced people are living in a camp cut off from the outside world; they desperately lack food and healthcare.
“People are effectively stranded in the camp and cannot leave.
“A rapid nutritional screening of more than 2,000 children under the age of five found that one in 10 was suffering from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition.
“People in the camp reported having less than half a litre of water per person per day. MSF teams provided food and medical care and are scaling up assistance.’’
Robert said the conditions in nearby Gambaru showed that more than one in seven children was suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
The town’s 123,000 residents lacked basic food supplies and had no access to healthcare after the only clinic was burnt down, he said.
The MSF official said that the town’s roads were too dangerous for people to go elsewhere for medical care.
“The desperate situation in Ngala and Gambaru matches that in Bama, Banki and Gwoza – all towns which were inaccessible until very recently due to insecurity.
“MSF has since been providing food and medical assistance.
“In Maiduguri, where there is no conflict and aid organisations have been unable to access the population for the last two years, MSF recorded malnutrition rates in some locations as high as those seen in the conflict zones.
“More than half of the 2.5 million people living in the state capital have been displaced from other areas of Borno,’’ he said.
Robert said that the MSF teams screening children in the Custom House camp found that one in five children were suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
According to him, the mortality rate is five times higher than what is considered an emergency, with the main cause being hunger.
Natalie Roberts, MSF Emergency Programme Manager, said that the aid response had been massively insufficient, uncoordinated and ill-adapted to the needs of people suffering the consequences of this crisis.
“To avert an even greater humanitarian disaster, food and medical care must be delivered now to remote and accessible areas in Borno State.
“Nigerian authorities have a responsibility to make sure this happens for the sake of thousands who are at risk of imminent death,” the programme manager said.
She said that MSF was an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivered emergency aid.
According to her, the aid was concentrated on people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare.
“MSF offers assistance to people based on need, irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.
“MSF has been providing healthcare to people displaced by violence as well the host community, in northeastern Nigeria since mid-2014.
Natalie Roberts said in places like Zamfara, Port Harcourt and Jahun, MSF was running extensive projects on child health, sexual and reproductive health as well as responding to medical emergencies like meningitis and measles outbreaks.
She said that in 2015, MSF teams performed 33,500 outpatient consultations, treated 18,100 patients for malaria, assisted 9,200 births and conducted 2,400 surgical interventions in Nigeria. (NAN)
ABI/COF/TA
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Edited by Yinka Oluwadare/controlled by Tajudeen Atitebi