No fewer than 150,000 children are in 26 Internally Displaced Persons, IDP, camps in Maiduguri, Borno State, with many disconnected from their families, following last week’s devastating flood that ravaged the state, Save the Children, SCI, Nigeria, has said.
This came as the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Environment mobilized a specialized team to deal with the aftermath of the disaster to checkmate the spread of waterborne diseases caused by flooding and identify the sources of hazardous chemicals.
Also, The First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has donated N500 million to persons affected by the flood disaster.
The Country Director, SCI, Nigeria, Duncan Harvey, at a briefing in Abuja, after a visit to state alongside his team to assess the situation, said “Over 1 million people across Borno State have been affected by the flash floods, with 400,000 displaced, of those, 300,000 have found shelter in 26 displacement camps, which on Friday from Bakassi camp, one of the largest camps, the conditions there are particularly harsh for children; overcrowding, and lack of basic services and shelter.
“Our immediate concern is the short-term need for food, water, and shelter, especially for children and their families. Additionally, we are supporting children who have been separated from their families. One of the most distressing things I witnessed in Bekasi camp was around 20 children who had been separated from their families. Our child protection team is working hard to reunite them with their families, while providing appropriate care in the meantime.
“We are particularly concerned because this disaster occurred during the lean season, when malnutrition is already at its peak. Many children were already malnourished before the flood, and now face even more severe challenges living in these camps.
“The state government has shown impressive leadership in response efforts, and the coordination on the ground has been commendable. However, the conditions for children are dire, and there is an urgent need for more resources and stronger coordination to scale up life-saving interventions.
“We have about 200 staff working on the ground, collaborating with the Borno State government, the UN, and other international NGOs to respond as effectively as possible. Tomorrow, I’ll be meeting with the humanitarian country team, and we’ll be working to coordinate our resources to save as many lives as we can, with a particular focus on children.
“There are 300,000 people registered in 26 camps established temporarily by the Borno State Government, we know that half of the population of the State is children.
“So we can estimate that 150,000 of those people living in those camps are children, and that is a real cause for concern and then we continue to protect those children in terms of health and nutrition, make sure they have access to safe drinking water and appropriate care in place.”
However, he said children will be placed on therapeutic feeding to boost their nutritional needs,
“In one of the camps, we are extending our therapeutic feeding programmes for underweight children, so we have an active screening programme, where we try to identify children who are malnourished, underweight, and we are working together with the Ministry of Health to identify those children and put them on therapeutic feeding programmes and also make sure they can recover as soon as possible. We are very concerned to scale up that programme.”
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