The health situation in Borno State in northeast Nigeria is critical. At least 500,000 people who are either displaced or cut off in enclaves outside the state capital of Maiduguri are in urgent need of food, medical care, drinking water and shelter.
“Aid agencies must deploy a massive relief operation to respond to this health disaster”, says Dr Isabelle Defourny, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) director of operations.
As the army regains control of the main towns and some villages in Borno State, the extent of the emergency is becoming all too apparent.
Hundreds of thousands have been cut off from the outside world, some for as much as two years. Mostly displaced people living in towns now controlled by the military, they rely entirely on outside aid.
Assessments by United Nations agencies and the Nigerian authorities have shown how very serious the situation is and teams from SEMA (Borno State Emergency Management Agency), Red Cross and Unicef have distributed food and provided medical and nutritional treatment at several locations.
In June, an MSF team observed extremely high levels of malnutrition and mortality in Bama, Borno State’s second largest town. Bama is now a ghost town accessible only under army escort. Its inhabitants, estimated at over 10,000, live in a camp.
While there are some food distributions and close to 1,500 people — the most vulnerable and sick — have been evacuated by the authorities, mortality rates are significantly higher than the emergency threshold and 15 percent of children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.