Nearly 200 Refugees Die Of Starvation In Nigerian Camp
MEP: Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Wednesday warned that nearly 200 refugees, who fled Boko Haram attacks, have died of starvation and dehydration in the northeastern Nigerian city of Bama in the past month.
The MSF made the announcement in a statement saying, “a catastrophic humanitarian emergency” is unfolding at a makeshift camp for refugees in Bama, where 24,000 people have taken refuge.
Many inhabitants are devastated and one in five children is suffering from severe malnutrition, MSF says.
The doctors referred 16 emaciated children at risk of dying to their special feeding center in Maiduguri.
“We see the trauma on the faces of our patients who have witnessed and survived many horrors,” said Ghada Hatim, head of the Doctors Without Borders mission in Nigeria.
Maiduguri is the Borno state capital 70 kilometers (45 miles) to the northwest of Bama.
Reports said ongoing clashes between Boko Haram terrorists and Nigerian troops in the country’s northeast have made travel unsafe and farmers have not planted crops for 18 months, resulting in the aggravation of the food and health crisis in the region.
The Islamist group’s seven-year rebellion has left 20,000 people dead and more than two million displaced.
