Feature: How rescued Boko Haram captives die in IDP camps Read more:

A loud explosion which immediately claimed the lives of many residents had frightened him, but the pandemonium which followed was what caused the 13-year-old boy to say what he thought was his last prayer. With death staring right at him, Lekan looked to the heavens and took to his heels ignorant of the fact that he was faced with more dangers ahead. This is because a single erroneous step on one of the explosives or landmines littering the ground would have sent him to an early grave. But as fate would have it, death was not going to take Lekan in the afternoon of January 27, 2002. This was a dark day in Nigeria’s history as over 1,000 Nigerians were killed in Ikeja, the capital of Lagos state, following multiple explosions in the Lagos armoury. The Lagos armoury explosion was an accidental detonation of a large stock of military explosives and ammunition at the Ikeja military cantonment. The fire created by the debris from this explosion burnt down a large section of Northern Lagos, and created a panic that spread to other areas. As people fled the flames, many stumbled into a concealed canal and were drowned. “As a witness of the January 27, 2002, Ikeja bomb blast, I understand the plights of those living in the north, especially in those areas terrorized by Boko Haram,” Lekan told NAIJ.com while recounting his ordeal. “Have you ever felt you were a walking corpse even though you are still alive? That was how I felt when I was taken to a rehabilitation camp after that scary experience,” the Federal University of Technology graduate added in an emotion-laden tone. “That is still the worst day of my life as so many people died that day especially little children,” Lekan told NAIJ.com. But while Lekan could withstand high calibre bombs and still survive, that has not been the case for some rescued captives of the Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast. Boko Haram threat The year 2009 marked the beginning of Boko Haram’s violent uprising as a series of attacks by the terrorist group made it crystal clear that a new terrorist threat was at hand. According to Laolu Akande, the senior special assistant to the vice-president on media and publicity, at least 20,000 people were killed by Boko Haram between 2011 and 2015 in Nigeria. Borno state has been worst hit by the crisis with a loss of $6bn while Yobe and Adamawa states were next in devastation. The northeast region suffered damage worth $3bn in housing alone, while it also suffered huge damage in terms of livestock which brought about the need to restore agriculture in the region. After six years in which the Boko Haram insurgents had turned the life of Nigerians into an unending nightmare, the Nigerian military began to turn the tables against the terrorist group towards the end of the last administration and after the inauguration of the new government on May 29, 2015.

However, despite the military reclaiming territory held by Boko Haram, the living conditions of the captives rescued from the terrorists’ hideouts have left many saddened. READ ALSO: Hunger hits IDP camps: Borno authorities divert relief materials Boko Haram captives die in IDPs camps The Boko Haram insurgency started in 2009, and between 2011 and 2015 more than 1.8 million people we forced out of their homes. Today, there are over 2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), mostly women and children, from the insurgency in northeast Nigeria and another 80,000 taking refuge in neighbouring Cameroon, according to figures from the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). The displacement of children from their homes is creating a huge problem for the region, as records show that northern Nigeria has the largest number of out-of-school children in Africa. Regardless, the Nigerian military have continued to hunt the Boko Haram fighters as they look to set more hostages free from the terrorists. However, recent reports of famine in camps for internally displaced persons have raised concerns within and outside the country. In a camp in Bama, a town in Borno state, 200 children are reported to have died from hunger, while many suffer from malnutrition. This was reported just before the Nigerian military disclosed that it had rescued over 5,000 hostages held captive by the terrorist group on Sunday, June 26, while ten terrorists were killed in several clearance operations in the northeast. Hostages rescued by the army are usually subjected to security screening and subsequently taken to IDP camps. It is expected that the newly rescued people will also be distributed to the different IDP camps.

But with the problems of food shortages and poor sanitary conditions presently rocking the IDP camps, concerns have been raised about whether food and other relief donated by the government and by non-governmental organizations is actually being given to the refugees. Last week, the medical and humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières issued a statement saying some 24,000 refugees are in poor health, with at least 30 people, mostly children, dying every day. Two weeks ago, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state paid a visit to Bama camp upon receiving reports that hundreds of malnourished people recently rescued from Boko Haram captivity were dying in a camp in Bama, 75km from Maiduguri, the state capital. After seeing the critical condition of the refugees, Shettima ordered the relocation of 61 children with acute malnutrition to the intensive care unit of the Umaru Shehu Ultramodern Hospital in Maiduguri, where they are currently being treated. Another group of more than 400 people with lesser cases of malnutrition were also moved out of the camp to a special care unit for proper feeding and medication. More children are at risk of dying due to malnourishment Nigeria is home to the highest number of stunted children in Africa and the second highest globally. Almost one in five Nigerian children is acutely malnourished and more than one in three children suffers from stunted growth. According to the United Nations, over 200,000 people, mainly children, are at the risk of dying from malnutrition in Borno state, as the needs of refugees for food and medicine rise faster than these can be provided. The UN humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, Mohammed Safieldin, made this shocking revelation at an emergency meeting with donor agencies and the Borno state government in Abuja on Monday, June 27. Safieldin disclosed that if nothing is done to scale up interventions for food and medicare to refugees, the camps are on the verge of losing five children every hour.