SINCE the administration of Governor Simon Lalong came into being in Plateau State in May 2015, the midnight attacks suffered by residents of various communities in the state between 2010 and 2015 have become a thing of the past. The Lalong administration made deliberate efforts to halt the trend as soon as he became the state’s chief executive. Last week’s incident in which 20 people were killed, however, came as an exception that punctured the long period of peace.
But the humanitarian problems posed by previous conflicts in the state are still posing serious humanitarian challenges to the government and the people. The grave conditions of the people displaced by the conflictswere worsened by the prevailing economic situation in the country on account of which the government cannot meet up with its responsibility with respect to providing the necessary aids to victims.
However, one humanitarian organisation that has never relented in providing succour for humanity in conflict situations globally is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The humanitarian body has rendered its services to victims of conflicts in Plateau, Benue, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states.
But for the work done by ICRC to save lives since the beginning of the conflicts, the humanitarian situations in the affected states could have been worse than was experienced during the Nigerian civil war. According to a recent facts and figures compiled by ICRC, the humanitarian challenges facing the country could be the worst in its history.
The media officer of ICRC in Nigeria, Eleojo Esther Akpa, who authored the figures, noted that “more than five million people in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states were in dire need of food, while an estimated two million persons have been displaced from their homes in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe and Yobe states.”
Akpa said: “The situation is further compounded by the steady flow of returnees from neighbouring countries of the Lake Chad Basin who took refuge there at the peak of the armed conflict in Nigeria. In the places they are returning to, the scale of devastation is astounding and implies continued hardship for those heading home. People’s sources of income have been decimated. Their fields have been left uncultivated, pastoralism has been disrupted and trading opportunities cut off. The conflict has separated families and destroyed access to food, water, education, shelter, and health care.”
She said to help mitigate the conflict’s humanitarian consequences, “the ICRC has been delivering emergency aid, as well as supporting health-care services and livelihoods, particularly in remote areas where few other humanitarian organisations are able to operate.
“Together with Red Cross societies in the Lake Chad Basin, the ICRC is searching for more than 10,000 persons who have been separated from their families as a result of the conflict.
“Apart from the conflict in the North-East, communal clashes in the Middle Belt and urban violence in the Niger Delta have led to forced displacement, disruption of health services and long-term psychological trauma.
“In these conflict-prone states, the economic base and sources of livelihood of residents, especially farming and trading, have been inconsistent, and lack of food remains one of the most urgent humanitarian needs. People are bracing themselves for a prolonged lean season due to the sporadic rainfall and several missed planting seasons.
“The situations of the most vulnerable groups such as children, women and the elderly, is of particular concern. They will remain dependent on aid for some time, and sustained food assistance will be necessary to prevent further malnutrition and death.
“The ICRC, in partnership with the NRCS, aims at meeting the immediate needs of the most vulnerable populations in hard-to-reach areas through the distribution of food and essential household items to the displaced, returnees and vulnerable residents.
“Those returning to homes that they had abandoned in search of security are apprehensive about rebuilding livelihoods. The ICRC has started, whenever feasible, to move from emergency food relief to greater support to livelihood initiatives for these affected communities, identifying with ways and avenues to provide more durable and sustained solutions centered around resilience and self-reliance.
“We seek to support sustained livelihoods through the provision of improved seed for farming activities as well as cash and vouchers in areas with active markets. In particular, households where women and particularly widows are the main breadwinners receive cash for the purchase of items that they consider the most important.”
According to ICRC, in all, almost 398,380 people in the North-East and the Middle Belt regions received food for three months or longer. It also noted that in the area of the health of the victims of the conflicts, the period of conflicts exacerbated the already difficult access to health care in the North-East, whose development had lagged behind the rest of the country. Many clinics and health care centres were destroyed while the health personnel fled for safety.
However, the ICRC continues to support primary health care centres of the Ministry of Health in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states with medicine and technical support for the identification and treatment of diseases. Two ICRC surgical teams provide care for the wounded in need of emergency surgical care in the North-East while the ICRC trains the staff of Nigerian hospitals nationwide to enhance their skills in the treatment and management of wounded patients.
The ICRC also provides psycho-social support for trauma-affected victims of the armed conflict and the NRCS volunteers working to assist them. The ICRC first aid training programme spans over 15 states and includes the North-East, the Middle Belt and Niger Delta states.
According to the data provided by ICRC, “Close to 255,300 patients attended 23 ICRC- supported centres for primary health care and three mobile clinics serving the displaced, returnees and residents in North-East Nigeria and the Middle Belt; over 13,050 children were delivered in ICRC supported clinics; around 6,520 children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition were treated in ICRC- supported clinics in North-East Nigeria, including 170 children with medical complications from Borno South treated in Biu stabilization centre; over 990 patients benefited from free surgical care with 720 of them treated as out-patients while 360 patients were admitted to the ICRC surgical ward and a total of 820 surgeries were performed; 33 NRCS and community volunteers were trained and supported by the ICRC to provide basic mental health and psychosocial support.”
The data added that “almost 106,000 displaced persons in North-East Nigeria improved their sanitation and hygiene conditions. Almost 10,000 returnees and persons affected by communal clashes in Michika (Adamawa), Barkin Ladi, Riyom and Bokkos (Plateau) received ICRC support to rebuild 860 houses. Over 40,000 displaced persons in camps in Borno State, North-East Nigeria, live in 120 family tents built by the ICRC. In Borno, the ICRC improved access to health services for 310 people through the construction and rehabilitation of health care facilities.”
The most pathetic aspects of the conflicts are cases where a father or mother could not locate their children after escaping from fire. While running for his life, a father would find himself in Jos but does not know the whereabouts of his wife and children. Some children who found themselves in one camp in Jos were restless because they did not know the whereabouts of their parents. Some who found themselves in Cameroon had no contact with other members of their immediate families.
But the ICRC says it has come to the rescue of many in this regard, working with the NRCS and other Red Cross societies in the Lake Chad region to locate and where possible reunite families. With the use of Red Cross messages and free phone calls, “separated family members have been able to get back in touch with their displaced relatives. About 4,590 new tracing requests were opened by persons looking for relatives with the ICRC or the NRCS. For instance, a victim named Falmata was overcome with emotion when she was reunited with her grandson, her only surviving relative, after two years of separation.
“No fewer than 180 Red Cross messages containing family news were exchanged among separated family members; 730 free phone calls were made available by the Red Cross to persons searching for their family members. Over 47,770 people in the North-East and the Middle Belt received essential household items such as cooking pots and water containers, as well as clothes, hygiene products, and sleeping and shelter materials, while 76,460 people received agricultural inputs including seeds, fertilizers, machinery and tools to start farming or to increase their farming production through donations in-kind and vouchers, and more than a dozen villages like Egba in Agatu LGA Benue State, devastated by several years of communal violence, receiving assistance to rebuild homes and livelihoods.
“About 26,150 people including widows received cash and basic training on small businesses to help them start a sustainable livelihood. In addition, 17, 620 persons received repeated multi-purpose cash assistance. Over 100 sensitization sessions to raise awareness of mental health issues stemming from conflict and violence were organised with a total of 5,060 community members and 14 health staff in attendance.
“Almost 5,510 displaced persons benefitted from ICRC’s mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) programme. 260 victims of violence received group counselling support while 60 hospitalised wounded patients benefited from individual counselling support. In all, 1,030 group and 90 individual MPHSS sessions were conducted. Around 6,000 casualties were treated and evacuated by the NRCS emergency first aid teams, while 660 community first aid responders in 15 states covered by the ICRC-supported first aid programme were trained.
“The high number of the displaced in the North-East put a strain on basic resources, such as water and sanitation installations. The ICRC creates or upgrades water points and sanitation facilities in the camps for the displaced and affected host communities. We also build tents and emergency shelters. To promote hygiene in the camps, the ICRC works with the NRCS and displaced persons on cleaning the environment. In areas where returns are possible, the ICRC has stepped up its work to repair or construct water systems benefitting both host communities and returnees.
We have built over 6,700 emergency shelters to house the displaced across North-East Nigeria.”
