Nigeria is Going Through a Humanitarian Crisis

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Nigeria is going through a humanitarian crisis and the figures are frightening. According to a report on the LA Times, more than 1,200 people living in a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in the northeast of the country have died from starvation and sickness in the last year.

 

The Crisis in Bama

 

One of the camps is in town of Bama, in Nigeria’s Borno state and this one has 24,000 people, including 15,000 children, whose health situation is dire.

 

There are people, children, dying of hunger and illness and even though a lot is being done by aid organizations, the situation still remains seemingly hopeless.

 

Fleeing From Boko Haram

 

From one crisis to another, these people who were fleeing the violence unleashed on the northeast of Nigeria by extremist terrorist group, Boko Haram, escaped on threat of death only to be faced by another; starvation.

 

Humanitarian organization, Doctors without Borders has been quoted, describing the situation as a “catastrophic humanitarian emergency”.

 

The agency, Doctors without Borders – which is also referred to as Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF – was only able to access Bama for the first time on Tuesday where they discovered 16 children who were severely malnourished and at immediate risk of death, as well as 150 other young ones suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

 

The situation is desperate.

 

Because of the conflict, several commercial activities are at a standstill including farming, fishing and other agricultural pursuits which has led to the intense hunger. With parts of that region still in the hands of the terrorist group, there is little hope that things could change in the near future.

 

This crisis might be in Nigeria, but it is a global problem which we all need to focus on. It is time for all of us to become proactive and do what we can towards diminishing the crisis in Nigeria’s northeast region.

 

 

Source: ‘Catastrophic humanitarian emergency’ at Nigerian refugee camp – LA Times