Starvation hits Katsina IDPs camp

The Chairman of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Jibia Camp, Katsina State, Malam Salisu Sa’adu, says the victims are currently suffering from hunger, starvation, and death in the camp.

Salisu disclosed this in an interview with NAN in Jibia on Tuesday.

He said the IDPs, camped in Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) Jibia, were mainly from Kwari, Zango, Shimfida, Tsauni, Far Faru, Tsanbe, and Gurbin Magarya villages in Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State.

“Food provided to the refugees is not enough; they are suffering from starvation, hunger, and death,” he said.

Salisu stated that there was no enough food for them, stressing that there were only two policemen guarding the Katsina IDPs camp.

He said: “Most of us (IDPs) are sleeping without mosquito nets and blankets, but we thank a non-governmental organisation, Medicines San Frontier, Doctors without borders that supplied drugs to us always at the camp.

“In fact, let me tell you, in view of the hardship we are passing through,15 of us died, while 35 women gave birth under forced labour.”

Salisu appealed to the state government to take steps to relocate them to their villages, to enable them to farm, and get what to feed their families before the end of the rainy season.

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“We are now almost three months here, we can’t continue like this; we really want to go back to our villages and look for what to eat with our families.

“So we are appealing to government to take cogent measures and relocate us to our places,” he said.

When contacted, the Chairman of Jibia Local Government, Alhaji Bashir Mai-tan, said the state government was trying its best in feeding the refugees in the camp.

Mai-tan said apart from that, the local government released N200,000 daily for some of their needs.

Maitan said he had been having sleepless nights to ensure peace and security in the area, as well as paying ransom to secure the release of people abducted by bandits.

He said currently, over 1,500 of his people were still in bandits’ captivity, advising that government alone could not fight banditry.

NAN, during a visit to the camp, observed that some of the IDPs looked worried, hungry, and in tears.

The Star