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Spiralling violence between armed groups in Nigeria\u2019s northwest has driven thousands of people from their homes; Conditions in the resulting displaced people\u2019s camps are dire, with a lack of food, water and shelter; We are urging for an immediate scale up in the humanitarian response in Zamfara state to meet people\u2019s basic needs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Rising violence in northwest \u00a0Nigeria<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0Zamfara state is causing a humanitarian crisis, warns M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF). MSF is calling for an urgent humanitarian response for people in the region, who are desperately short of food, drinking water, shelter, protection and basic services, including healthcare.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cOur teams in Zamfara state have witnessed an alarming rise in preventable illnesses associated with a lack of food, drinking water, shelter and vaccinations,\u201d says MSF\u2019s Dr Godwin Emudanohwo, speaking from the hospital MSF supports in the town of Anka. \u201cChildren keep on arriving here in a very bad condition.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn the first four months of 2021, our teams in Anka, Zurmi and Shinkafi treated 10,300 children for severe acute malnutrition, measles, malaria, watery diarrhoea and respiratory infections,\u201d says Dr Emudanohwo. \u201cThis is 54 per cent higher than in the same period last year.\u201d<\/p>\n What began as occasional clashes between farmers and herders, competing over increasingly scarce land and water resources, has now evolved into generalised random violence by armed groups, who use kidnapping and plundering as a lucrative source of income.<\/p>\n People who make it to MSF health facilities say that the surge in violence has driven them to flee their homes, farms and grazing lands. Some have sought protection in Zamfara\u2019s larger towns, such as Anka, where they are sheltering in camps, both formal and informal.<\/p>\n Living conditions in the camps are dire, with no regular food distributions or proper shelter and with insufficient water and sanitation facilities, according to MSF teams. Other people have stayed in villages, too afraid to travel on insecure roads and delaying their trips to seek healthcare or fulfil other basic needs.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s hardly any food to give to my children,\u201d says Halima, two of whose children are being treated for severe acute malnutrition by MSF in Anka hospital. \u201cWe can no longer grow crops because criminals attack our farms.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTwo of my children got measles and they were growing very thin. The roads are very dangerous, but I had to risk our lives and bring them to hospital,\u201d says Halima. \u201cLast time, when their elder sister got measles, I decided too late to travel by road and bring her to hospital. She had complications and now she is blind.\u201d<\/p>\n In February 2021 there were more than 124,000 displaced people<\/a> living in in Zamfara state, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) \u2013 an increase of more than 12,000 since August 2020. In Anka town alone, our teams have counted more than 14,000 displaced people, with around 1,599 arrivals in the past four months.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had to flee our grazing lands and most of our cattle were stolen,\u201d says Nana, who is sheltering in a camp for displaced people on the edge of Anka. \u201cNow there\u2019s very little for us to eat. I make a living by selling cows\u2019 milk to local people.\u201d<\/p>\n The 150 beds in MSF\u2019s paediatric ward in Anka hospital are already full, but staff fear the worst is yet to come.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are currently running over our bed capacity in Anka hospital,\u201d says Dr Emudanohwo. \u201cFamilies tell us they won\u2019t be able to farm for the new season, which means a new cycle of hunger.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the rainy season is yet to start, when malaria and other seasonal diseases increase,\u201d continues Dr Emudanohwo. \u201cPeople here need food, safe water and vaccinations now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe survivors are afraid to take the roads, so they usually arrive at our clinics too late to prevent sexually transmitted infections, with serious mental trauma and in desperate need of protection\u201d. Dr. Noble Nma, Msf Medical Activity Manager in Shinkafi.<\/p>\n Rise in kidnapping and sexual violence<\/strong><\/p>\n As the violence spirals, reports of kidnappings, killings, armed robbery and sexual violence have multiplied.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom January to April, our teams in Zamfara have received over 100 victims of sexual violence,\u201d says Dr Noble Nma, MSF medical activity manager in Shinkafi, where we run a clinic for survivors of sexual violence. \u201cWomen and sometimes men are abducted by armed men and subjected to violation for a few weeks before being returned to their community. This is in addition to the violence faced by women within the community itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Fear of travelling along dangerous roads means that rape survivors often seek support late, or not at all. \u201cThe survivors are afraid to take the roads, so they usually arrive at our clinics too late to prevent sexually transmitted infections, with serious mental trauma and in desperate need of protection,\u201d says Dr Nma. \u201cThey tell us that there are more survivors out there who are afraid to travel here, so we fear that we\u2019re only seeing the tip of the iceberg.\u201d<\/p>\n MSF is one of just a few aid organisations working in Zamfara state. This is not the first time we have raised the alarm on the urgent need for increased humanitarian assistance and protection in the region.<\/p>\n \u201cOur teams have witnessed the speed at which the situation in Zamfara state has deteriorated,\u201d says Froukje Pelsma, MSF head of mission in Nigeria. \u201cThe lives of people in northwest Nigeria are now dominated by hunger, abuse and preventable diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is happening here is a humanitarian emergency that needs urgent attention and a fast and proper response,\u201d says Pelsma. \u201cThe authorities and all relevant stakeholders should assume their responsibilities towards affected communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Distributed by APO Group on behalf of M\u00e9decins sans fronti\u00e8res (MSF).<\/i><\/p>\n Source<\/a> Spiralling violence between armed groups in Nigeria\u2019s northwest has driven thousands of people from their homes; Conditions in the resulting displaced people\u2019s camps are dire, with a lack of food, water and shelter; We are urging for an immediate scale up in the humanitarian response in Zamfara state to meet people\u2019s basic needs. Rising violence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":68607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1623371422_341_418.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[258,256,4696,3723,281,4691,450,279,280,8580,38786,6068,257,254,6017,2148,23070],"class_list":["post-68606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dr-congo","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-central-africa","tag-crisis","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-dr-congo","tag-dr-congo-news","tag-drc","tag-drc-news","tag-escalates","tag-gripped","tag-humanitarian","tag-news","tag-south-africa-today","tag-state","tag-violence","tag-zamfara"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1623371422_341_418.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Central Africa Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"