Helping children to overcome trauma

Children who survived Boko Haram attacks are recovering through drama and art, writes Nellie Peyton, of the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

GROWING mental health services for children who have survived Nigeria’s Islamist insurgency can help prevent future violence, aid agencies say, although huge needs remain unmet.

In Niger’s Diffa region, about 250,000 people have fled fighting around Lake Chad where Islamist group Boko Haram has been waging attacks since 2009, according to the United Nations.

Twothirds were children, many of whom had witnessed extreme violence and had no way to process their anger and trauma, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said.

‘‘We have many children who tell us, ‘when I grow up I’m going to revenge myself’,’’ Yacouba Harouna, MSF’s supervisor of mental health activities in Diffa, said.

‘‘This is why we say better to act early than late.’’

Boko Haram has targeted schools and abducted more than 1000 children since 2013, according to the UN children’s agency, including, most notably, the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in 2014.

MSF worked primarily with Nigerian refugees between the ages of 7 and 14 in Diffa, some of whom were kidnapped, Harouna said.

Art and drama helped them release their emotions, he said.

Many drew pictures of people being slaughtered or in combat.

The aid group expanded its work with children last year, carrying out 700 consultations between March and June.

Children now made up 35% of its mental health patients in Diffa, but it was the only agency providing these services in the area and was nowhere near reaching everyone in need, Harouna said.

‘‘Child protection and children’s support in conflict zones is already underfunded . . . and psychosocial support even less,’’ said Natalie Turgut, a policy and advocacy adviser for War Child, a UKbased charity for children affected by war.

The area was neglected because it required more specific skills and training than other types of aid, but was just as important, she said.

‘‘If this isn’t prioritised, it means that conflicts will continue,’’ Turgut said.