Internally Displaced Persons in various camps in Adamawa State have called for improved feeding with good food nutrients.
Some of the IDPs told the News Agency of Nigeria in Yola that they were getting three square meals daily, but that the food lacked vital nutrients.
“For months now, we have not seen meat; we have to cope with meals that are no longer tasty,” said a woman who simply identified herself as Asabe.
Alhaji Modu Gana, the Chairman of the IDPs in Damare camp, said since December, the Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency that used to supply meat to the camp had stopped.
“We are however grateful to government and its agencies for ensuring that our daily three square meal is still flowing,” Gana said.
Commenting on the development, the Executive Secretary of ADSEMA, Haruna Furo, said the suspension was caused by cash crunch facing the agency, but that effort was being made to resume supply.
“As soon as the situation improves, we will resume the supply of meat and fish to the camps,” Furo said.
Also commenting, the Head of Operations of the National Emergency Management Agency in Adamawa State, Sa’ad Bello, said the feeding arrangement in the camps was that while NEMA supplied grains such as rice, beans, maize and the likes, ADSEMA was responsible for meat and condiment for soup.
Bello said in spite of the suspension in meat supply by ADSEMA, NEMA had from time to time intervened, particularly in supplying fish.
He said: “We do from time to time intervene to assist ADSEMA, which has been doing well.
“During the just-concluded Ramadan fasting, we made sure the IDPs also had things like kunu and bean cake.”
However, in Borno State, many IDPs complained of poor feeding by the authorities.
Some of them interviewed by NAN in Dikwa, headquarters of Dikwa Local Government Area of the state, expressed reservation over the feeding arrangement by the authorities concerned.
Hajja Binta Masa, a mother of five, expressed disgust over the feeding arrangement at the camp housing about 70,000 persons.
Masa said: “The feeding arrangement is very poor.
“We have complained severally but to no avail.
“Each day, the camp administrators get supplies of 500 bags of 50kg rice and some quantities of beans from the store and yet we are left hungry.”
Masa explained that the 500 bags of rice were usually cooked at the camp in the mornings and evenings each day.
She said: “The camp administrators usually cook 250 bags of rice in the morning and another 250 bags in the afternoon.
“But the problem is that the IDPs cannot eat the food because it is usually cooked without stew, only some salt and pepper are added.”
Masa said that on enquiry, the camp administrators claimed that there was no supply of soup ingredients by the state government.
She said: “We have been protesting to the administrators but they always replied that the problem emanated from the State Emergency Management Agency.
“One of the administrators reliably informed us that SEMA had stopped supplying soup ingredients to camps due to paucity of funds.”
NAN reports that the problem was not limited to Dikwa camp alone as most IDPs in Maiduguri camps also complained about the same problem.
Alhaji Modu Bukar, an IDP in Sanda Kyarimi Primary School, decried the poor quality and quantity of food being served at the camp in spite of the recent donation of 106 trucks of food by the Dangote Foundation.
Bukar said: “We were happy to hear that Dangote had donated 106 trucks of foodstuff for the feeding of IDPs during the Ramadan fast.
“But our feeding has remained poor in the camp.”
He pointed out that IDPs were also served food twice on daily basis.
He said: “It is true that we get food twice on daily basis, but the quality of food is too bad.
“Sometimes they serve half cooked rice with groundnut oil and salt for breaking fast, sometimes they serve Biski without soup.”
Bukar said most of the IDPs had refused to eat the food, resorting to begging to eat.
He added: “Most IDPs who have options have stopped eating the meal, but so many others have had to continue, some prefer to beg for food outside the camp.
“It is really a sad thing.”
Malam Abuwar Muhammad, another IDP at Dalori camp, corroborated the claim, saying that many displaced persons had been hospitalised due to poor feeding at the camps.
Muhammad said: “Honestly, the quantity and the quality of the food served at the camp are bad.
“I cannot imagine feeding my cat with that kind of meal when I was at home.
“But now I have to eat the same kind of food because I am an IDP.”
But Hajja Binta Asheikh, an IDP at the Bakassi camp in Maiduguri, offered a different opinion.
Asheikh said: “It is true that things were very bad at the IDPs camps in the state.
“But things have started to change for the better.”
She said the introduction of household feeding by the state government at the IDPs camps had eased the problem.
She said: “The introduction of private cooking for the IDPs by the government has brought some relief.
“My family was given a bag of rice, sugar, salt, semovita and other things to cook on our own and that had helped greatly.”
Asheikh said, however, that the quantity of foodstuff provided for each household was inadequate.
She said: “They gave us a bag of rice, semovita and other things to last for four weeks.
“This is grossly inadequate.
“I think that they should do something about this.
“The quantity is too small for a household to survive.
“We are displaced persons.
“We are not beggars.”
Alhaji Satomi Ahmed, the Executive Chairman of the State Emergency Management Agency, declined comments on the issue.
“I cannot comment on this issue please,” Ahmed told NAN.
NAN.
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