Hunger compels children in Bauchi IDP camp feed on onion leaves

Intense hunger as a result of inadequacy of food items in an Internally Displaced Persons camp in the outskirts of Bauchi has forced adolescent children to feed on onion leaves for survival.

The News Agency of Nigeria correspondents who visited the camp, located about 2km from Rindebin community in Bauchi Local Government Area, report that the children, between the ages of three and five, looked pitiful as they consumed the leaves.

Some of their parents interviewed said there were no enough food as such they had to “improvise” ways of tackling hunger, adding that they believed onion leaves were nutritious and would also protect their children from hunger and diseases.

One of the parents, Aisha Musa, said for the past one year, children and adults in the camp had been struggling to survive, with little or no assistance from all quarters.

Another parent, Ajidda Ahmed, said the hardship being encountered were enormous, adding that most of them had given up any hope of living a normal life.

Ahmed said: “Both adults and  children suffer from hunger; this has resulted in forcing us to eat raw onion leaves from sellers that come into the camp.

“Rainy season is about to set in and another fear is the outbreak of child childhood diseases because for the past one year, our children were not immunised and there are no water, sanitation and hygiene facilities

“We defecate in the bush and the rain water will soon wash our faeces back to the stream, where we source for water to drink.”

NAN also observed that children under two years in the camp were showing symptoms and signs of malnutrition.

Commenting on the situation, the leaders of the IDP camp, Bulama Gojja, said they were over 200 in number of the Shuwa-Arab stock from Marte, Marfa and Jere local government areas of Borno State, and that they forced to relocate to the camp last year as a result of the activities of Boko Haram insurgents.

Gojja enumerated their challenges to include insufficiency of food items, lack of potable water, health facility and education for their children.

He said that in 2018, no fewer than 20 pregnant women delivered in the camp without the required medical attention, expressing fears that the offsprings might develop health challenges due to lack of immunisation.

He lamented that in spite of their efforts at drawing sympathy over their plight, assistance was not forthcoming from any quarter.

The leader therefore solicited for assistance from both government and non-governmental organisations, particularly in the areas of health, education, potable water and agriculture inputs like fertiliser, seed and herbicides to enable them engage in farming.

Efforts by NAN to secure comments of appropriate state government agencies and some non-governmental organisations on the matter were not successful as those who were supposed to speak on the issue were said not to be seat each time NAN visited.

NAN.