Hunger, lamentation in Niger IDP camp

Having spent five months in the Kuta Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, Hajiya Fati Salihu, one of the elderly women there wants government to do everything possible to enable them return to their homes.

Hajiya Fati, who is in her late 60s, was displaced from Moguga village of the state five months ago by armed bandits who invaded their community and killed many people, kidnapped others, destroyed properties and carted some away.

According to her, she first left the community for Gwada at the onset of the attack, hoping that security would improve. She came to the IDP camp when the situation continued.

“Staying in the camp is traumatising and destabilising. We cannot compare this place with our homes because we have been deprived of so many things and activities. My staying here is not different from being in the bandit-ravaging community. In our communities we were physically attacked by bandits, but at the camp we are emotionally attacked. We are not emotionally stable. This place is strange to me. There’s no comfort,’’ she narrated.

Majority of the displaced persons lamented over the poor living condition of the camp, including sanitation. They alleged that the type of foods they eat lacked the nutrients needed for healthy living, saying they only eat the foods to stop hunger.

They said they had spent many days without food before the chairman of Shiroro Local Government, Comrade Sulaimon Dauda Chukwuba intervened.

Narrating their ordeal during that period, Hajiya Fati said they resulted to self help in order not to die of hunger.

“There was no food in the camp for many days and we started fending for ourselves. We resulted to self help. Those who had among us brought it to cater for all of us; but it was not easy. That’s one of the reasons I said government should come to our aid and restore peace in our village so that we can return home,’’ she said.

Sanitation in the camp is another source of worry to the displaced persons, who are majorly women and children. The little facilities they have are not enough to cater for their needs. It was discovered that the children among them engage in open defecation while adults manage the few toilets in the camp. They said the temporary toilets there were built by them when they arrived at the camp and discovered that the ones available were not enough.

They occupy some of the classrooms in Dr Idris Ibrahim Primary School, forcing the pupils to move to another part of the school.

Also narrating his experience, Zakari Galadima, who was displaced from Masuku village, said the best thing the government would do for them is to ensure that peace returns to their communities so that they could return home.

He said, “We have accepted our coming here as an act of God. We were more than 2,000 during registration when we first came some five months ago. Our continuous staying here is worrying us.  Government should provide enough security so that we can go back to our various villages. It is not our wish to stay here. Where we sleep is grossly inadequate and untidy. Despite the fact that people have reduced in the camp, we still have about 60 people in a class that is just a little bigger than a room in our houses.

“When we came, temporary toilets were constructed for us, but even with the old ones, they are still not enough.

“The food we are eating is just to quench hunger because they do not have the required nutrients.

“When we ran out of food in the camp, the youths among went out to look for money and buy things. They engaged in mining, construction work and menial jobs for our collective survival.’’

Commending the chairman of the local government, Galadima said, “He pleaded with us and said he was on top of the situation. And he later brought food for us.’’

He called on people of good conscience who could talk to the government to do so on their behalf, saying those in positions of authority were not  listening to their plea.

He, however, said the place was well secured with vigilante men on ground to protect them 24 hours daily. He added that nobody was allowed to come in or go outside when it is 10:30pm. He also noted that they had not experienced any epidemic since their arrived in the camp. According to him, there have, however, been cases of normal fever and other small ailments, which are always attended to by health officers in the camp.

In his reaction, the chairman of Shiroro Local Government said the displaced persons didn’t go hungry for many days as they alleged. He explained that the hunger period was only one day. Chukwuba blamed the unfortunate situation on the failure of the management of the camp, who did not inform him on time.

Also, the public relations officer of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), Mr Hussein Ibrahim, said no other IDP camp had enjoyed the privilege the people at Kuta have. “The day they informed us that their food had finished, we took food to them the next day,’’ he said.

He, however, disclosed that they went there with a committee set up by government to take their inventory so that they would be able to provide what would enable them go back to their homes.

“The problem we are facing at Kuta is that the camp has been open for a long period of time and these people have been enjoying free food. And because the planting season is gone, they do not have anything to do at home; that is why they prefer to stay in the camp instead of going home. They want government to continue giving them food.

“There have been suggestions that we close the camp, but the governor, being someone who knows the pain they are going through, asked us to let them remain in the camp, even when the problem of banditry in their communities is over. He feels that staying in the camp would enable them overcome the trauma they have been through.

“For more than a month now, activities of the bandits have been reduced as the state government has been using both military and local vigilante to dislodge them.

“The governor said we should allow them to stay so that their tension and trauma would reduce. Most of them are still in the camp just to enjoy free food. If you go there now you will see few people, but when you take food there, a whole lot of them will come out,’’ Ibrahim alleged.

He said the government, in conjunction with the NSEMA, had put up a committee that would develop modalities to take them back to their communities and provide little stipends for them and ensure they have vigilantes who would guard them until things normalise. He, however, said that some of them were afraid to go.

Ibrahim also debunked the claim that the displaced persons slept on bare floor, saying government provided beddings for each of them.

“When displaced persons come to the IDP camp, they return home with those things when things normalise. When another set of people come, we buy new ones and the same thing happens. That has been the problem we are facing. We always start afresh whenever a community is attacked.

“We are looking at how to return them to their villages,’’ he said.