Ten IDPs die in a Nigerian camp daily

A man prepares lunch in an open-air kitchen for IDPs in northeast Nigeria. The UN says 9.2 million people living around Lake Chad are in desperate need of food. AFP | PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • A civilian vigilante and a soldier said the deaths were occurring in Banki Town where they are based, about 130 kilometres southeast of Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
  • The UN said in May that 9.2 million people living around the lake, which forms the border of Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger, were in desperate need of food.
  • But the vigilante disputed that, saying the IDPs received nothing from the state and only Unicef provided them with water containers and sanitary items in April.

At least 10 people are starving to death every day in a camp in northeast Nigeria for people displaced by Boko Haram violence, highlighting warnings about a food crisis in the Lake Chad region.

A civilian vigilante and a soldier said the deaths were occurring in Banki Town where they are based, about 130 kilometres southeast of Borno state capital, Maiduguri.

Troops liberated the remote town near the Cameroonian border last September.

“People are dying in large numbers in the camp from lack of food,” the vigilante, who asked not to be identified because of his job assisting the military, told journalists.

“They are starving to death daily. Between 10 and 11 people, including men, women and children, have been dying daily since the internally displaced persons camp was opened three months ago.

“As of yesterday we counted 376 graves at Bulachira cemetery belonging to IDPs who died in the last three months.”

The soldier, who has been in Banki since the liberation and also asked to remain anonymous, gave a similar account: “At least 10 people are buried every day in the cemetery,” he said.

“The camp is hunger-stricken. People are emaciated and starving. If nobody intervenes, a catastrophe is looming because these people can’t hold out.”

Borno state government and aid agencies have warned about acute food shortages in the region as a result of seven years of violence.

The UN said in May that 9.2 million people living around the lake, which forms the border of Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger, were in desperate need of food.

One Nigerian refugee in a camp in southeastern Niger told journalists last month: “I think everyone has abandoned us.”

Another said it had been four months since they last received food assistance.

Even at the giant Dalori camp outside Maiduguri, which houses about 20,000 people, IDPs complain there is not enough to eat and children are always hungry.

The camp has been locked down since a suicide blast outside in January, forcing residents to rely on twice daily bowls of cooked rice and beans.

“The ration given to occupants of a room is so little that it can be consumed by this boy,” Aisha Bala, 35, said, pointing to a six-year-old.

“We force ourselves to eat the food despite its bad taste so as not to die,” added Babagana Mustafa, 46. Ahmed Satomi, executive secretary of Borno state emergency agency, said there were 10,000 IDPs in Banki and relief items were delivered two weeks ago.

But the vigilante disputed that, saying the IDPs received nothing from the state and only Unicef provided them with water containers and sanitary items in April.

Satomi said they were “preparing to procure maize and rice that will last the IDPs for the next 40 days,” he said.