Sadiya Babagana, aged 27, spoke with a heavy heart as she recounted how malnutrition used to wreak havoc in El-Miskin Camp, a popular community of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno State, northeast Nigeria.

She said up to nine used to die in one day years back.

“Some years back, when we migrated, children often died in this camp, mostly those below five. Some days, there would be at least three deaths, and in severe cases, we would lose up to nine,” said Sadiya.

Although this occurred a long time ago, Sadiya, slouched on a mat with a sleeping baby during this interview, believing that the same fate would revisit the community this year as hunger had returned to the camp because international organisations stopped supplying it with relief materials or food and the state government wasn’t of much help.

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“When the organisations are giving us aid, our children are in good condition. However, they are not in good shape now that we don’t have such things again. For months, we saw nothing, and we lacked sufficient food,” Sadiya told FIJ. 

Sadiya, who hails from the Marte Local Government Area of the state, said that her husband gained a meagre income as a mai ruwa (water seller) and this could not sustain her, let alone her five children. She explained that the only weapon they had against malnutrition in the camp was ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF).

A report by the World Food Programme shows that Borno is one of the leading states in Nigeria where conflict is affecting millions of lives. While about 4.4 million people battle with acute hunger, 320,000 children face malnutrition as tens of thousands are food insecure or need humanitarian assistance. 

‘MY HUSBAND DIVORCED ME WHEN HE COULDN’T FEED THE FAMILY’

Whenever Falmata Idris, aged 38, recalls how her husband divorced her without any offence, she’s sad. One morning, her husband told her that he would be leaving the camp in search of greener pastures in the big cities, but she did not know that she would not set her eyes on him again. 

“He had mentioned travelling initially, but that was the last time I saw him. Weeks after his departure, he contacted his brother to give the phone to me, and I was so happy to hear from him, not knowing that he called to add to my hardship,” she said.

“He left because he could not feed me and my children. Without a choice, I started sending my children to beg at the market so that we could have food to eat.”

Narrating how the guilt of failure as a husband and father forced him to abandon her, Falmata recounted that her husband shed tears like a toddler whenever her children complained about hunger. 

Now living at the camp which has over 7,000 dwellers, she has to cater for herself and eight children. “Since the aid stopped from all quarters, things became very tough and unbearable for us here at the camp, and I depend on my oldest sons who go out to beg for raw food,” she lamented.

NEGLECTED, DEJECTED: LEFT TO SUFFER

For more than four months now, hunger has become a household name among displaced persons at various camps for IDPs in Borno, as the government and nonprofit outfits such as ActionAid, International Rescue Committee, Danish Refugee Council and others have reportedly halted the supply of aids to them. 

In late 2021, the Borno State Government resettled hundreds of thousands of displaced persons in its 13 official camps within the state due to alarming social vices and other factors, as it claimed.

“And each household head was given N100,000, while their wives were given N50,000 each. The agency will be supporting them for at least one year as part of stabilisation and peacebuilding process and livelihood support,” Hajiya Kolo, the Director-General of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, assured while detailing plans for displaced persons.

“Our plans for 2022 is to strengthen the capacity of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), and, because of the ongoing return of the IDPs, Governor Zulum has increased our budget from N500 million to over N1 billion.”

NO PLANS FOR IDPs IN INFORMAL CAMPS?

During a visit by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in March 2023, the dwellers of the El-Miskin camp said that they had been abandoned by the government, as “dozens of children were admitted with acute malnutrition”. 

“We have not got any food supply recently. Before this time, we used to receive aid according to the number of our children. Since they (international organisations) left, we have been on our own,” Fatimah Ahmad, who was forced to flee her hometown in Mafa, muttered. 

Fatimah said she was now working as a maid for some rich people to complement what her husband brought from his daily labour. She would have sent her six children to hawk the petty things she sells but she said she was afraid of the caution by “some authorities and child rights activists against doing so”.

Like others, she could not afford a standard school for her children, so they attend Sangaya, an informal Islamic school, within the camp to save them from street begging.

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‘IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG, NO FOOD FOR THE DAY‘

Fatimah is not alone. Ya Buram Modu, another woman, swore that she went to sleep some day without anything in her stomach. She imagined how the little business of her husband could sustain a family with a dozen heads. 

“Normally, we eat only once a day. If something goes wrong sometimes, it means no food for the entire day,” she said in Kanuri, using the hem of her hijab to wipe her teary eyes. 

“We rely on the onions that my husband is selling by the roadside. He hardly makes N500 in a day, from which he buys maize and other things for the family.”

Ya Buram paused for a long time before describing how she lost one of her babies because of malnutrition, pointing out that two others were suffering from the same challenge.

“I was told at the hospital that the twins I gave birth to were affected by severe acute malnutrition, so all of us had to stay at the hospital for some weeks for the babies to recover and gain their strength. Two months after we came back from the hospital, I lost them,” she bemoaned.

‘BEYOND WHAT YOU THINK’

Expressing grief over the loss of a child, Abubakar Aji lamented that his inability to provide a balanced diet for his son led to his death, as he had no strength to go into the bush to fetch firewood for sale again. 

“We all bear the cost of this hunger, but how it cripples our children is a sad one. They cannot bear what we are enduring. My boy had been so tiny from birth, except for a large head,” the 70-year-old man said.

“We want the government, the international communities and others to come to our aid. Our condition is beyond what people might think.”

Also into the firewood business, Bulama Jubril told our reporter that his sustainability seemed hard because he was making little income. “I watch my young children scavenging at places I don’t even know. They beg or do chores to get food for themselves,” Jubril said. 

He could not stop them from alms begging because he “hardly make N700 daily” from his business. “So, how would such amount sustain a family man like me?” He asked.

SEMA WEIGHS IN

When FIJ called Abubakar Ibrahim, Head of Media, SEMA, Borno, he told this reporter that the state government had already closed IDP camps all over the state and dwellers had resettled.

“El-Miskin and Medinatul are household camps, not officially owned by the government. Sometimes, we try to reach out to them with sustainable provisions,” he explained. This means that dwellers of these camps survive on what they get out of menial jobs or what international organisations supplied to them before stopping their outreaches.

Asked if he was aware of the malnutrition in the camp, he said he did not “know about it but would investigate”. As of press time, he was yet to give feedback, and several calls put to him were not answered. 

“I’m not feeling fine” was his last statement. 

Meanwhile, a HumAngle report on May 12 confirmed that Nigerians at various camps for displaced persons in Borno State were still facing acute malnutrition, and that about 1,283 children were admitted to a therapeutic feeding centre in the state a month earlier. 

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EXPERT POURS IN, LAMENTS RISKS

In an interview with FIJ, Dr. Mahmoud Abubakar Mukaram, Registrar, Department of Family Medicine, Federal Medical Centre, Kebbi State, bemoaned the risk of acute malnutrition for displaced people. 

“Complications of malnutrition can be seen virtually in every IDP, but mostly hit are the children,” he said. He added that the health risks include “reduced immunity, increased risk of infections, anaemmia, subcutaneous fat and muscles, hypothermia and nutrient deficiency, among others”.

Saying that provision of amenities like potable water, hygienic sanitation and easy access to health facilities would go a long way to prevent malnutrition. Mukaram also said that improved political will to block corruption within SEMA would ensure constant aid from the government and international organisations to the IDPs for survival.