Hunger, diseases dominate Nigeria’s North-West -MSF
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), an international medical organisation, has said Nigeria’s North-West is dominated by hunger, abuse and diseases.
It said Zamfara State especially, where they were currently supporting a hospital in Anka is in dire need of humanitarian assistance. It said people are dying from preventable illnesses associated with a lack of food, drinking water, shelter and vaccinations.
The organisation stated this in a statement issued Thursday in Zamfara.
The group’s Head of Mission in Nigeria, Froukje Pelsma, in the statement said, ” The lives of people in North-West Nigeria are now dominated by hunger, abuse and preventable diseases.
“What is happening here is a humanitarian emergency that needs urgent attention and a proper response. The authorities and all relevant stakeholders should assume their responsibilities towards affected communities.”
Another doctor with the MSF, Godwin Emudanohwo, described the situation in Zamfara State as more pathetic than expected.
“Children keep on arriving here (in the hospital) in a very bad condition. In the first four months of 2021, our teams in Anka, Zurmi and Shinkafi treated 10,300 children for severe acute malnutrition, measles, malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory infections. This is 54 per cent higher than last year,” the doctor said.
The group, therefore, called for an urgent humanitarian response for people in the region who were desperately short of food, drinking water, shelter, protection and basic services, including healthcare.
It stated that what began as occasional clashes between farmers and herders competing over increasingly scarce land and water resources had evolved into violence by armed groups, who used kidnapping and plundering as a lucrative source of income.
