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Boko Haram homeless face housing crisis as rains hit
LAGOS, June 26, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Thousands of men, women and children made
homeless by the Boko Haram insurgency risk disease because of lack of shelter
in northeast Nigeria, aid workers said on Tuesday.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said more than 4,000 people were having to
sleep in the open in the town of Dikwa, where they have fled military
operations against the jihadists.
Nigeria, which maintains the Islamist militants are virtually defeated, is
encouraging internally displaced people (IDPs) to return to their homes, as
troops wind up operations.
But humanitarian organisations say towns outside the Borno state capital,
Maiduguri, do not yet have the minimum standards of basic services to cope
with an influx of so many people.
The Nigeria director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Cheick Ba, said
they were “extremely concerned” by the situation in Dikwa, which is 92
kilometres (57 miles) east of Maiduguri.
“Children are sleeping outside with nothing over their heads. With the
rains now hitting the area, they risk becoming sick with malaria, diarrhoea
or typhoid,” he said in a statement.
There were 1.7 million IDPs in Borno state and neighbouring Yobe and
Adamawa at the end of May, the United Nations said last week.
But “large-scale displacements” were happening every week as a result of
increased fighting this year. In May, 21,207 people arrived in five towns in
Borno state, including Dikwa.
Resources were stretched and $41.7 million was needed to provide life-
saving assistance to some 115,000 IDPs who are expected to move in the coming
months, it added.
The NRC said aid agencies were “overwhelmed” and hundreds of IDPs had
arrived in Dikwa since April because of fighting between the military and
Boko Haram in surrounding areas.
More than 600 people awaiting military screening were staying in an unused
petrol station which has no roof; 4,000 others who have been screened were at
a reception centre.
But the centre was “full to the brink”, forcing families to sleep in the
open. Women crammed into single rooms with men outside was a common sight,
the aid agency added.
The need for emergency shelter was immediate, as IDPs had also taken over
four local schools while the military was using another as a base.
There was no immediate response from Nigeria’s defence spokesman when
contacted by AFP.
BSS/AFP/RY/1615 hrs