Ramadan: We’re given food once a day, Kaduna IDPs cry out

Some internally displaced persons (IDPs) from affected by recent attacks on communities in Giwa LGA of Kaduna State have lamented poor feeding in the local government designated camp during the Ramadan period.

Daily Trust correspondents, who visited the Dr Shehu Lawal Giwa Government Secondary School in Giwa, where the IDPs are being camped by the local government after they were displaced from their communities in March, gathered that they are fed only once a day. 

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One of the displaced persons identified as Karimatu who is a widow and mother of six children said they were only supplied food in the evenings during the breaking of the fast but left to fend for themselves at Sahur (beginning of the fasting).

She said during the day, their children who are not fasting always cried for food. Most of the women lost their husbands when bandits invaded their villages.

“Sometimes, we have to save the meal given to us in the evening so as to give our children in the daytime,” she said.

Another widow with eight children, Laraba (real name withheld), also decried the quantity of food given to them on daily basis. 

She called for the provision of teachers at the camp to help their children with education.

When our correspondent contacted the camp director, Alhaji Idris Saleh Giwa, he said the local government authority had been trying to provide meals for the IDPs since they were brought to the camp some two weeks ago.

He said, “I want to debunk the insinuation that the IDPs are fed once a day because apart from what the council supplies, we also receive charity from some Muslim ummah who donate generously to the IDPs since we are in the holy month of Ramadan.

 “Although, we are yet to receive any donation from the state government, however, the council chairman has been up and doing, and is trying his best to provide for them.”