By Edoamaowo Udeme
First sight of the entrance to the Muna camp in Maiduguri, North-East Nigeria, looks like a typical local market, buyers and sellers were everywhere selling mostly local foods, there is no inkling that the settlement overlooking it was actually a camp as it looks like a normal village settlement but by the time our vehicles parked, the only curiosity was the number of little children that gathered around us because it was school hours but there was no school in sight, it was then clear where we were, a camp full of displaced families mostly children, laughing excitedly probably oblivious of their situation and speaking a language most of us in the group did not understand, as soon as one turns a camera to face them, they disappear with a speed of lightening. I made to communicate with one who held another kid’s hands, while beckoning on her, she let go of the younger one and bolted with a loud “cry for help”. I was almost in tears as I imagine the trauma the kids may have gone through. This camp, according to findings used to harbor 49,000 families but only a few have moved out.
Mallah Ahmodu, Amina Manye and Aisha Lawan are children of circumstance, they were born in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, in Muna, Maiduguri, Borno State. Three of them are over 1 year and 2 months old, none of the three kids could lift a foot, let alone walk, they are skinny to the bones, you could practically count their ribs, beautiful adorable kids looking up to you as if your arrival would lessen their pain. Hit by Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), it probably couldn’t have been this bad had the parents not been displaced by the conflict savaging their homes. No place to farm, no staple food, no permanent roof over their heads and most importantly, the women struggling to breastfeed the kids while they themselves are malnourished. Questioning the women was like passing a Carmel through the needles eyes, none understood me, me neither! I opted for an interpreter.
30-year-old Fatima Ahmodu mother of 7, Manye Gambo also 30 and mother of 6, while Bintu Lawan who can’t tell her age is a mother of 5 are mothers of the three malnourished kids mentioned above. Displaced from their Boboshe Community in Dakwa Local Government of Maiduguri, Borno State by the Boko Haram insurgence, all of them have been in the camp for 6 years. There, these kids were born to women who are mostly farmers, these women have been displaces from their homes, lost it all, their farmland, sources of income, shelter and only depend on voluntary donations to survive. What’s more? The food donations is not what the are used to, so it leaves their lives more complicated.
Inside the health facility in camp, the personnel in charge, Haruna Yanka, said the patients are still coping with depression because of the displacements and are acting irritably, some openly spit on the bare floor and would act irrationally if you try to caution them and despite the inadequate food, the distribution they get from National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), they do sell it to marketers who cash in on their ignorance just so they could purchase the red corn which is their staple food.
“As for the malnourished ones we used to have more than 30 children daily but now, it has reduced drastically to like 7 children in a week, From the initial admission, a child is placed on RUFT based on how severe his health is, assuming he were given 10 pieces of RUTF, if there is an improvement it will be reduced gradually until the child is well if not, we refer him for proper admission”
The Ready to use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), which contains all the nutrients that if adequately administered on the kids can get then back on their feet, strong and healthy but are sometimes eaten by their mother due to inadequate food, the mothers claim that the children will suckle it from their breasts, how really can you blame a hungry woman that is still breastfeeding an equally hungry child? Also, the diversion of food as well the misuse of intervention funds/materials have conspired to derail the fight against child malnutrition.
Hadiza Abubakar, the personnel in charge of Infant and Young Child Feeding IYCF programme in Health facility 2, in Muna Camp said there is enough RUTF to feed all the kids but the parents have refused to eat nourishing food donated by the donor agencies as they sell or exchange maize wheat and other staple food of theirs, Hadiza who has been working on the camp for 2 years says the health facility has not recorded child mortality for a long time. On food donation she says SEMA currently brings Beans, Salt, Maggi, Soya-bean and Maize. She says there is adequate medications to handle emergencies such as cholera and diarrhoea, but the camp badly requires mosquito nets and soaps.
According to The UNICEF Nutrition Specialist Ifeanyi Maduanusi, who spoke at the workshop, expressed optimism on the improvement and possible eradication of malnutrition “malnutrition situation will improve if additional funding is provided by the state and other donor agencies for the intervention”. But the UNICEF Chief of Field in Maiduguri, Borno State, Samuel Sesay,expressed his concern that years of insurgency with wanton destruction of communities and displacement of people, might have contributed to the devastating state of malnutrition in the northeast states.
“Malnutrition has proven to be an underlying cause of nearly half of all deaths in under-five children globally and it is currently the biggest threat to child survival and development in North East Nigeria. While stressing that household food insecurity, poor health services, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the high level of under-nutrition amongst children under the age of Five in the North East”. Sesay pledged UNICEF continuous advocacy and good relationship with the Government of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states for increased budgetary allocation and release of funds for nutrition, as well as a multi-sectoral approach to address malnutrition by combined efforts of ministries of health, water resources, agriculture, education, commerce, animal resources, women affairs and social welfare.He urged journalists to bring the attention of policymakers to the nutrition crisis in north-east Nigeria, assuring that nutrition and media facilitators are ready for critical engagement to promote the well-being of conflict-affected children in the region.
