Malnutrition: 10 Babies Die In FCT IDP Camp

Ten babies have died of malnutrition in Waru Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Camp of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.

The women leader of the camp, Mrs Fatima Mohammed, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja.

Mohammed said the figure was recorded since the formation of the camp in 2013 to date.

She said the issue of malnutrition among infants and children remains a source of concern to many families in the camp.

“As I am talking to you now, one of the nursing mothers died recently in this camp.

“You see, one of our major problems in this camp is lack of good medical facilities, potable drinking water and toilet facilities.

“Due to the deteriorating condition of our toilets here many of our women contracted toilet infections, some have even chronic infections to the extent that they could not bear children,” she said.

While calling for assistance from the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, the women leader said their situation required urgent attention.

“One of our basic needs is a healthcare facility even though our stay here is temporary because some of us have businesses at home before insurgency displaced us from our various communities.

“Before we used to receive medical and material support from organisations like the former Director-General of Refugees Commission Imaan Suleiman she supported us a lot and we are grateful.

“But since they left, we have not received donation from any organisation so far.

“But we are many in this camp, we are close to 3,870 persons.

“Even the empowerment scheme that the former minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya, brought to us only 17 people benefited out of this population.

“The empowerment programme was mainly on skills acquisition because some of us were trained in tailoring and we were given sewing machines,” she said. (NAN)