Moved by the plight of persons displaced by the raging war between Nigerian troops and Boko Haram insurgents, the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, has distributed 960 metric tonnes of food and other essentials to the victims scattered in the North-East.
The distribution was on Monday completed to the refugees said to be living in extremely difficult conditions.
“After carrying out an assessment of the situation, the ICRC and the Nigerian Red Cross launched an emergency operation to meet urgent needs. ICRC staff and more than a hundred Nigerian Red Cross volunteers distributed 960 metric tonnes of food and other relief items to 51,000 people,” ICRC said in a statement made available to Chat212 last night.
According to the world relief agency, most of those being supplied with food and other essentials are the refugees who fled their homes at Kodunga, Kaga, Gwoza and Damboa and also lost all their belongings.
“Not only did people have to flee their homes in Kodunga, Kaga, Gwoza and Damboa, they also lost all their belongings and their means of earning a living. They didn’t have enough food and they lacked important basic items,” said Karl Mattli, head of the ICRC delegation in Nigeria.
“The additional strain placed on communities by hosting the displaced reached the point where it was more than they could bear,” the ICRC said.
Under the emergency plan put in place, most displaced people, who arrived in Maiduguri in the past few months were settled in government buildings, schools or official camps.
According to the ICRC, some of the IDPs stayed with relatives or host families, with whom they shared scant resources, while others found refuge in informal settlements.
Whatever their living arrangements, the displaced cannot afford to buy their own food and therefore have had to depend on aid provided by the State or on the generosity of others to survive.
“In the short term, the aid we have just distributed will improve significantly the well-being of the displaced,” said Janet Angelei, an ICRC economic-security specialist working in Nigeria.
“The kitchen sets, blankets, soaps, mats, hygiene items and tarpaulins we have provided will meet some of their immediate needs and reduce the burden on the hosting families. The ICRC also distributed about a month’s supply of rice, beans, oil and salt.
One of the IDPs in Maiduguri said that since they fled their homes in the wake of the conflict, it has not been easy for them to eat or have any significant help from any group or individual until the ICRC’s intervention.
“ Since fleeing our homes, we had not received any significant help,” said Abdullahi Abuya from Konduga. “Some of us had barely had anything to eat for weeks, but now things are better.”
Health care
ICRC said that it was able to upgrade the Mala Kachalla Primary Health Care Centre in Maiduguri in collaboration with the state Ministry of Health and to train the centre’s staff.
It also said it built a water tower with a 4,000-litre tank and installed a solar-powered water-supply system. In addition, it has completely renovated the facility’s floors, ceilings, doors and windows.
“The centre, which is now fully operational, offers general outpatient services with a special focus on children under five years of age, ante-natal, delivery and post-natal services, and patient stabilization prior to referral for secondary care,” said Bernadette Gleeson, head of ICRC surgical and first-aid programmes in Nigeria.
Overwhelmed
Because of the displaced people arriving in Maiduguri, the centre’s catchment population is now estimated to be in excess of 100,000.
Emergency aid for Nigerians who fled to Niger
Civilians fleeing fighting between the Nigerian army and armed groups have recently arrived in the Diffa area, in easternmost Niger. The displaced, mainly women and children, arrived from the Abadam area and Nigerian villages near Lake Chad. They have lost everything and are entirely dependent on host communities and on aid provided by humanitarian organizations.
At the beginning of October, the ICRC and the Red Cross Society of Niger distributed food to more than 2,000 people in Diffa and to over 3,500 people who have taken refuge on islands in Lake Chad.
