Escape from Boko Haram: 1, 500 Internally Displaced Women Give Birth in Camps

By Jenn Loro - 09 Feb '16 11:44AM

According to health authorities, about 1, 500 women reportedly give birth in 28 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps across the state of Borno in the northeastern part of Nigeria where a violent insurgency is being waged by Boko Haram- a radical jihadist group with ties to ISIS.

The mothers are part of the larger wave of people fleeing from war in an Islamic extremist-led insurgency that has already claimed the lives of 20, 000 people.

State Primary Health Care Management Board of Borno stated that it has established 20 Integrated Primary Health Care Centers in all IDP camps in order to extend healthcare services, psycho-social therapies, and child nutrition support to the women.

"The Borno Government has procured health kits for each of the IDPs to help cater for their immediate needs. We have equally distributed mosquito nets to each and every one of them," remarked Executive Secretary of the Board Sule Mene as quoted saying by Premium Times.

The secretary, however, regretted that the meager resources they have overstretched the capacity of the IDP camps that's why his agency is currently forging partnerships with other government agencies and non-government organizations NEMA, WHO, UNDP, Doctors without Borders and UNICEF, in order to provide a better environment for IDPs especially women and children in a report by TV360 Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the Chibook community blamed former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo for the failure of the government to rescue 219 schoolgirls two years after they were kidnapped by Boko Haram rebels presumably as bargaining chips.

The members of the said community reacted strongly to Obasanjo's claim that it was impossible for the military rescue the missing girls during his watch.

"Obasanjo...may have his reasons for making such statement but, to us,...the girls are alive and can be rescued...Our hope lies on the fact that since their abduction, none of them has been found dead or alive; and that, to us, it is a good sign that they are alive," said the community leader as mentioned in a report by All Africa.