Yobe IDPs cry out for shelter as raining season approaches
Ordinarily, rain is seen, especially by farmers, as a blessing, but not so for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Yobe State who sleep in the open. They are crying for help as the raining season is just by the corner, fearing it will compound their plight.
For 61-year-old Baba Ali Ahmadu of Tudun Wada Yalwa community of Yobe State, life was very rosy as a great farmer. He had a large farm with barns to store his produce until one fateful day when Boko Haram insurgents stormed their community and unleashed terror on them.
Ahmadu as well as other men in the community with their families fled to Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, to find succour and even at that they are going through difficulties.
When they first came to Damaturu, they headed for the Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) camp located within the city but couldn’t fit into the place because the facilities there were overstretched with many people and they were not used to depending on people to feed them.
The community members then moved to Kasaisa, which is about six kilometers away from Damaturu to set up a camp, where they sleep in the open.
Presently, with the rains fast approaching, members of the community are crying for shelter and also want medical personnel sent to their camp as their children frequently fall ill with malaria, cold, cough and malnutrition.
The 61-year-old was holding a cutlass, hoe and long stick as our reporter approached him. The old man said he was heading to a nearby bush to find a particular grass called ‘Tafasa,’ to build a thatched makeshift structure for his family to stay in before the rains start.
Ahmadu said the prayer of everyone in the camp is for the raining season not to start until they have built huts for their families.
“For the past 39 days, our wives and little children have been sleeping under these trees and they are exposed to all sorts of diseases and dangers, including the intense night wind which has infected our children with cough,” he lamented. “Over 1600 households are now engaged in building the make shift huts for their families because people have started dying.”
He added that: “An old man, Malam Abdullahi Muhammad, took ill here and died, another old woman died, Yusufa Baje also died, and two pregnant women had stillbirths, they are currently at the Family Support Hospital Damaturu.”
Ahmadu said 80 children in the camp need urgent medical attention and do not allow their parents sleep at night because of intermittent cough and other health conditions like fever, eye complications and cold.
He revealed that the camp has over 3000 IDPs and has only received assistance once from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) but without accommodation offered.
Ahmadu said 99 percent of the IDPs were subsistence farmers, who abandoned their farmlands, livestock, and grains in their silos after escaping from the brutal killings perpetrated by Boko Haram militants in their community.
“Our hope is for the military to announce that it is safe to return to our community, so that every one of us can return to our normal lives,” he added expectantly.
He said although they heard rumours that the military had liberated the area, they want them to accompany them back home so that they can get food from their silos as they don’t have food to eat in the camp.
Another displaced person, Malama Hassatu Ali, who complained bitterly about hunger, wondered what plans the government has for them. “For the past 20 days now, we have no food to eat and nobody has cared to check on how we are doing,” she lamented.
Hasatu said Ramadan fasting is soon to start and their feeding condition has worsened as they used to eat twice daily but lately, people in the camp have no guarantee they will be lucky enough to eat the next day.
Fatima Mohamed, a teenager in the camp, said she dropped out of school along with other children from adjourning settlements due to attacks by Boko Haram insurgents, who burnt down their schools and threatened to kill parents that insisted on enrolling their children.
“Thank God we escaped with our lives, but the situation is still the same as we don’t attend school and there is no food to eat and we sleep under trees,” Fatima lamented. She appealed to the government for intervention, saying as women and children they were most vulnerable.
Another camp leader, Alhaji Kale Manjima, lamented that the IDPs have been abandoned by government, saying for over one month now they have not had food and their children were exposed to serious health hazards.
“We don’t have food to eat and you don’t need a doctor to tell you that our children are malnourished. We are pleading with the military to escort us to our village so that we can get food from our silos in order to feed but they have not responded,” he said
Manjima, who recounted how Boko Haram militants raided their communities and killed male adults, kidnapped young women and set villages ablaze, said he will not return until the military guarantees the place is safe.
He said only God knows how they escaped to Damaturu and doubted if families in the camp are complete as they lost wives, children or husbands.
The camp leader stated that they decided to take refuge at Kasaisa village so that they could have easy access to their farms, but added that with the wave of attacks taking place in Yobe and Borno states, they no longer feel secure in the place.
He said some families have even started leaving the camp because no one can guarantee their safety.
Our correspondent learnt that the camp which serves as a stopover for the refugees hosts people from Manjjim Babba, Mamjim Karami, Gulle, Gudu, Kesaya, Nkire, Zarmari, Majari and Kirbiri villages in Gujba council.
It lacks basic facilities that an average IDPs camp should have such as toilets, accommodation, medical personnel. It has no kitchen or cooking points.
“You can see how miserable life can be in this place, we all defecate in an open place and no government official has come to visit us,” another IDP, Malam Lawan Gana said.
He added that a volunteer organisation came to the camp and promised to help, saying that their representative gave them money to buy construction materials and build toilets for themselves.
“I cannot recall the name of the organisation but, they gave us money to buy this building materials saying it is paramount being that we sleep in an open place, and with the rain about to start we can easily contract communicable diseases. They also promised to come back and continue helping us in feeding among others,” Gana added.
When contacted, the Executive Secretary, Yobe SEMA, Musa Idi Jidawa said the agency in collaboration with the Red Cross went under Humanitarian Coordination Forum and inspected the IDPs, adding that they will soon take decisive action to tackle their plight.
“We are going to concentrate more on issues regarding their feeding, accommodation and health. We urge them to be patient,” Jidawa said.
He added that when the agency heard about their relocation to Kasaisa, it provided enough foodstuff and medicine to ensure that they were well taken care of.