Nigerian IDP camps: 8 pictures that will move you to tears

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria are having the worst of this already hard times. In the various IDP camps scattered throughout the country, the conditions of living really leave a lot to be desired.

IDP camps are not prisons neither are they detention camps, yet the conditions people are experiencing there now are quite similar to those of detention camps, if not even worse.

This is especially true of IDP cams in the northern states of Nigeria since 2015, when the increasing pace of the Boko Haram insurgency has led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. The massacres that happened in Baga, Bama and Gwoza contributed to the displacement of thousands.

One of the major problems people in the IDP camps face is the lack of  proper and adequate food. The state governments, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) are in charge of the camps. Donations from philanthropists like Dangote and other politicians should keep this camps going.

Instead there are reports of diverting food meant for the IDP camps by officials. Some officials even hijack the food and other things donated and start selling them at exorbitant prices to those in the camps, this has led to suffering and malnutrition.

Pictures like this are commonplace.

While state governments are allegedly spending hundreds of millions on this IDP camps monthly, those in the camps say the governments are not doing enough, apart from having problems with proper nutrition, they do not even have the minimum shelters above their heads, as many are forced to sleep on the bare ground outside.

The people in the picture below are even the lucky ones, since they even have something above their heads.

READ ALSO: Photo News: See what happened when Dangote visited IDP camp

Many instead spend the days and nights under the stars like this:

Many of these people have lost their entire families, some do not even know if their fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, are dead or still alive in some camp elsewhere, so they just try to get through each day. Yet, even that is difficult, because even getting clean water is a major problem.

NEMA, is doing its best to supply water to the camps, but the question of if its enough remains, and for how long, will this continue?

 

The question of education is not one to be pushed aside. Experts have proved that illiteracy is one of the reasons that led to the proliferation of recruits for Boko Haram.

Many of the educational supplies needed in the camps have been hijacked the same way the food was, many young ones, whose schooling was cut short due to the insurgency have had their educational growth stunted. This is definitely another area that should be looked into the governments, by NEMA and by SEMA too.

At Kuchingoro IDP camp in Abuja, some have gone to great lengths to provide a good school for refugees. Apart from persons from Gwoza Local Government Area (LGA) of Borno State who have been displaced by the Boko Haram sect, the camp has also provided refuge for people rendered homeless through clashes between by Fulani herdsmen and indigenous people of various areas in Kaduna and Nasarawa State.

The importance of education, especially to children who have faced trauma and loss, and are facing other problems in the camps is of great importance too.

While the Boko Haram Insurgency might have caused the displacements, it is up to the Nigerian government and the goodwill of the Nigerian people to ensure that the people in these camps are taking care of, till they can find a home.

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