Sheer resilience saw hundreds of internally displaced persons in Abuja through the five-week COVID-19 induced lockdown. FAITH YAHAYA reports.
The Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCRMIDP), Sen. Basheer Mohammed, recently revealed that over 290 camps exist in the country for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) with a population of about 2.3 million people.
The camps are spread across various states, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Most of the IDPs had fled their communities at the peak of the Boko Haram attacks in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states. In Abuja, there are about 18 camps hosting IDPs from various states and communities.
The plight of these vulnerable Nigerians has continued to dominate public discourse. Stating that the Commission will continue to cater for their needs, Mohammed raised concerns about the wellbeing of the IDPs.
At any given opportunity, NCRMIDP boss has continued to plead with agencies in the humanitarian space to pay special attention to the IDPs, especially in this trying moment.
The COVID-19 outbreak has compounded an already difficult situation. Obviously, social distancing, which is one of the cardinal points in the anti COVID-19 campaign, has no place in the various camps.
Our correspondent observed that promises made by government agencies to make life meaningful for this army of displaced persons are not being matched by action. The IDPs still lack basic necessities of life.
A visit to one of the registered IDP camps in Abuja by our correspondent during the lockdown, occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, revealed the precarious situation of the displaced persons.
At the Durumi Camp
The untarred dusty road leading to the camp says a lot about the state of the camp. The signpost giving direction to the camp is covered by overgrown weeds. At the entrance to the camp are three water tanks, indicating that water isn’t a challenge here.
The first thing that greets a visitor is the sight of men, women and children sitting idly in clusters. Unlike in the “outside world”, social distancing isn’t one of the rules here. The camp accommodates 2,830 inmates, comprising men, women, young adults and children.
Most of them are from Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states in Northeast. A breakdown of the numbers reveals 215 households, comprising 103 adults between the ages of 45 years and above; 1,750 youths between the ages of 15 and 45 years; 740 children between the ages of 1 to 15; and 22 orphans.
On their major sources of livelihood, 52 of the women are tailors; 37 are into production of liquid soap; 34 are into the production of locally made caps.
For the male population, 107 of the men are farmers; 15 are tailors, six are iron benders; and seven are mechanics. The rest, mostly young adults, are cobblers, commercial motorcycle riders and sachet water hawkers.
The scramble for food
Narrating the plight of the inmates, the chairman of the camp, Ibrahim Ahmadu said they depend on the goodwill of private individuals, corporate organisations and humanitarian agencies. Ahmadu said the desperate scramble for food had led to unpalatable consequences in some instances.
He narrated how two young men of the same parents lost their lives the previous week while trying to get food. According to him, the two young men were 25 and 28 years of age. Ahmadu said, “They went out in search of food after the lockdown was announced.
While searching for what to eat, they were alerted about a truck conveying food stuff to an unknown location. The truck was around stationed Apo Village. Obviously driven by hunger, they both raced to the scene where the truck was temporarily parked.
Apparently, operators of the truck were awaiting security clearance to proceed to their destination. Out of the excitement that they might get what to eat, the siblings rushed to the scene and were successful in getting a bag of rice.
They were on their way back to the camp when they had an accident and they both died on the spot. They were brought to us after some people who witnessed the accident identified them as inmates of the camp. So you can imagine and see what hunger has caused.
We lost two men to hunger. Their names are Umar and Ibrahim. They were commercial motorcycle riders. One of them was preparing to get married and he had even paid the bride-price to get married to a lady in Gwoza before his untimely death.”
According to him, some officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) brought the two corpses to the camp for identification.
Coping with life
Many of the inmates complained about neglect despite their proximity to the seat of power. Life, they said, has been difficult for them, particularly during the government imposed lockdown. The men, who make their daily living by operating commercial motorcycles and other daily paid jobs are the worst hit.
The lockdown has kept them confined to the camp. Those of them that hawk sachet water in traffic and markets have been experiencing low patronage as a result of the restriction order. On how they have been coping, Ahmadu said, “Since we started hearing of Coronavirus in Nigeria, no government official has visited us or brought anything, not even a bag of sachet water has been brought to us.
It is only one Good Samaritan that has been bringing meals for our children daily. Goodluck Jonathan’s foundation also brought us 33 bags of rice, hand sanitizers, salt and which we have already distributed.”
The Refugee Commission called the secretary of the camp and instructed us to compile our names, our bank accounts, and phone numbers with the promise that they will come to visit us.
We already did the collation. 880 persons from the camp gave their information to us because others do not have bank details. The government did not check on our people or bring anything. Even the Chairman of the Refugees Commission promised to bring something but they have not done that for close to three weeks.
Even the bank details we compiled, the commission has not come to collect it. We are talking as IDPs, even those who could fend for themselves before the lockdown are finding it difficult.
Hunger is disturbing everybody. I am begging the government to fulfill their promise to us by coming to our aid. They should not deceive us. They made a promise to us and I feel it will be honourable of them to fulfill it”.
Measures to tackle COVID-19
As a way to prevent people from contracting and transmitting coronavirus, the chairman also said they have instructed residents of the camp not to go outside the camp to look for food. “Some of us go to the bush to get locust beans.
The yellow part of the pod is what we eat and sell the seed to people who process it and turn it to ‘dawa dawa’. When our children are really hungry and have cried for a while, they settle to eat this and drink water.
To be frank with you, if Coronavirus gets here, it will kill us. If it enters our camp, many people will die. I swear. We warn our people not to go to town to look for food so they won’t bring problems to the camp.”
The Provost of the camp, Umar Ali said their only challenge in the camp is food. He said: “We don’t have any problem with Coronavirus. Our challenge is food.”
On social distancing and how feasible it was to observe it considering the living condition in the camp, he said: “The living situation here depends on the number of people per household.
If you have 10 children, you will have to sleep together with them in the same tent irrespective of what the health ministry or NCDC advised because there is nowhere we can relocate them to. We don’t even have enough money to feed, not to talk of constructing alternative tents for them.”
How the kids are faring
Feeding, proper clothing and footwear appear to be the major concern regarding the welfare of the children. While at the camp, this reporter observed some of the children sitting and chewing the yellow ripe pods from the locust beans tree.
The yellow pod is usually licked while the seed is later processed and turned to local seasoning- dawadawa, iru, or locust beans.
The pod appears to be the staple at the camp, particularly since the lockdown began. When tired of the pods, they venture into the nearby bush to fetch cashew fruits. After eating the cashew fruits, they roast the seeds and extract the nuts, which are also consumed.
Palliative for the poor and vulnerable
Contrary to claims that the IDPs were the first beneficiaries of the food relief by the government, the residents of the camp claimed that they were yet to get any form of palliative from the government.
They alleged that since the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development assumed the ministerial position, no food ration has reached residents of the camp. They complained of being abandoned.
The IDP women leader, Liyatu Ayuba, who spoke with our correspondent, said nether the Refugee Commission nor the Humanitarian Minister had responded to their repeated distress calls during the lockdown.
Health concerns in the camp
A volunteer nurse, Isah Umar, who has been working in the camp for the past seven years, also identified hunger as the major problem in the camp.
Giving an insight into the major disease outbreak or common illness in the camp, Umar said illnesses recorded frequently in the camp are ulcer, fever, and dysentery.
Distribution plan of palliative in FCT
Since the announcement of the lockdown, the FCT Minister of State, Ramatu Aliyu, had continued to insist that the FCT targeted only 600,000 households for the distribution of palliatives. The minister, however, said the FCT social register contains only about 3,000 names despite the huge population.
She also argued that it might be impossible to include IDPs in the register as, according to her, they are not permanent residents of the FCT.
She assured that a comprehensive list of names of the poor and vulnerable in the FCT will be compiled after the lockdown to ascertain those who need help.
Encounter with CEO of Cockerel Foods and Beverages, Kingsley Obokhare
Shortly after this reporter had been told about a good Samaritan who had constantly been distributing food to the kids resident in the camp since the lockdown was announced, this reporter saw two cars drive into the camp.
A few seconds after the car was parked, children gathered in large numbers waiting eagerly to get their lunch.
The kids were divided into groups to reduce the crowd and taken through the process of washing their hands before they were handed over their takeaway packs of food.
Speaking on the humanitarian gesture, Obokhare said: “In this camp, we have 2,830 people here and the kids are over 450. For the women, they are about 1000 and the men are about 1200.
Feeding everybody daily is not easy for us, so we decided to concentrate on the kids and some of the women. You can see them (children), they don’t have any means of survival.
Most of them don’t even know their parents. The first day we came here on the 30th of March to distribute food, some people kept their food till the next day.
It was not warm because they were trying to save it for the next day but they did not even have the means to warm the food and it ended up spoiling.”
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