- Title: Boko Haram attacks destroy farm communities, bring famine risk
- Date: 2nd December 2016
- Summary: MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA (NOVEMBER 30, 2016) (REUTERS) WIDE OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS / PEOPLE STANDING WOMEN AND CHILDREN STANDING WOMAN RECEIVING FOOD ITEMS VARIOUS OF FOODS ITEMS ON THE GROUND / WOMEN WALKING TOWARDS THE FOOD ITEMS GIRL HOLDING A JAR OF OIL / WALKING AWAY WITH HER MOTHER (SOUNDBITE) (Hausa) INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSON, FATI ADAMU, SAYING: "What happened is that Boko Haram attacked us and drove us out and it's six months now since I saw my relatives and that's how I came to this camp and I've been in the camp since." MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA (NOVEMBER 29, 2016) (REUTERS) WIDE OF CAMP SHOWING STRUCTURES AND CHILDREN VARIOUS OF CHILDREN PLAYING CHILDREN SEATED PEOPLE OFFLOADING FOOD ITEMS FROM A TRUCK VARIOUS OF FOOD BEING LOADED INTO A WAREHOUSE PILES OF GRAINS TRUCKS ON STANDBY WOMAN SWEEPING VARIOUS OF CAMP SHELTER WITH CHILDREN EATING BABY SLEEPING CAMP ACTIVITY (SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSON, BUKARALHAJI BUKAR, SAYING: "It's not enough. Also, after I collect the food, in two weeks the food will finish and I will start to beg the people because of the hunger." MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA (NOVEMBER 30, 2016) (REUTERS) WOMEN WITH CHILDREN ON HOSPITAL BEDS / HEALTH WORKERS MOVING AROUND DOCTOR ATTENDING TO A WOMAN WITH HER CHILDREN VARIOUS OF DOCTOR FEELING A CHILD'S SWOLLEN STOMACH WOMEN WITH CHILDREN ON HOSPITAL BEDS WOMAN WITH MALNOURISHED CHILD ON A HOSPITAL BED MALNOURISHED CHILD LOOKING ON (SOUNDBITE) (English) DOCTOR, SAVE THE CHILDREN CHARITY, ISAAC BOT, SAYING: "For instance many of them are malnourished which is already bad enough but they also developed cases like malaria which further worsens their illnesses because they can't eat and start vomiting and you know. So they get down really very fast so they are brought here and we try to stabilise them." WOMEN WITH CHILDREN ON HOSPITAL BEDS MOTHER CARRYING HER CHILD VARIOUS OF NURSE ATTENDING TO A MALNOURISHED CHILD / MOTHER LOOKING ON NURSE CHECKING A CHILD'S PULSE FACES OF A NURSE AND A MOTHER VARIOUS OF MOTHER FEEDING HER BABY FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION OFFICIAL DISCUSSING WITH A JOURNALIST FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION OFFICIAL AND JOURNALIST WALKING PAST (SOUNDBITE) (English) FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION OFFICIAL, TIM VAESSEN, SAYING: "They will depend on expensive food aid, malnutrition will remain bad, nutrition will go down and income will spiral down, there won't be any dignity, they will remain in the camps, they will become easy targets for other armed groups. They might have to migrate again maybe even up to Europe." MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA (NOVEMBER 29, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WOMAN KNITTING / CHILDREN SEATED CHILDREN AND WOMEN WALKING AROUND
- Embargoed: 17th December 2016 06:31
- Keywords: Boko Haram famine malnutrition Internally Displaced Persons Nigeria
- Location: MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA
- City: MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA
- Country: Nigeria
- Reuters ID: LVA0015B6W953
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Fati Adamu has not seen three of her six children nor her husband since Boko Haram militants attacked her hometown in northeast Nigeria in a hail of bullets.
Two years on, she is among thousands of refugees at the Bakassi camp in Maiduguri, the city worst hit by a seven-year-old insurgency that has forced more than two million people to flee their homes.
The United Nations says 400,000 children are now at risk from a famine in the northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe - 75,000 of whom could die from hunger within the next few months.
A push against the jihadists by the Nigerian army and soldiers from neighbouring countries has enabled troops to enter remote parts of the northeast in the last few months, revealing tens of thousands on the brink of starvation and countless families torn apart.
There is a renewed threat of Boko Haram attacks. The start of the dry season has seen a surge in suicide bombings, some of which have targeted camps, including one at Bakassi in October which killed five people.
The World Food Programme said it provides food aid to 450,000 people in Borno and Yobe. Some 200,000 of them receive 17,000 naira each month to buy food, soon to rise to 23,000.
At least 15 camps, mostly on the outskirts of Maiduguru, the Borno state capital, are home to thousands of people unable to return home and surviving on food rations.
At one camp, known as New Prison, women and children visibly outnumber men, many of whom were killed by Boko Haram or are missing.
One man, 45-year-old Bukaralhaji Bukar, who has eight children from his two wives said the food he buys with the monthly stipend finishes within two weeks.
In the centre of Maiduguri, life seems to be returning to normal. Food markets are bustling but soldiers in pick-ups clutching rifles are reminders of the need for vigilance.
In a ward in Molai district near the Bakassi camp, the air is filled with the sound of crying babies and the gurgle of those who lack the energy to cry. Some, whose skin clings tightly to their bones, are silent - too weary to even raise their heads.
Children have conditions ranging from diarrhea and pneumonia to bacterial infections and skin infections.
Tim Vaessen of the Food and Agriculture Organization said a failure to restore their ability to farm would in the long term mean displaced people would depend on expensive food aid.
Boko Haram militants have killed about 15,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria during a seven-year campaign to carve out an Islamist caliphate.
The Islamist group still launches deadly attacks despite having been driven out of much of the territory it held in 2014. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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