Food scarcity: IDPs abandon host families for camps
– Nine in 10 IDPs live with host families in the north east
– It is alleged that food scarcity in the communities has forced them back to camp
– NEMA official however declined comments on the situation
IDPs return to camp over food scarcity
Reports reveal that increasing food scarcity has forced people displaced by Boko Haram terrorists in the North-east to leave their host families for internally displaced person (IDP) camps.
This has resulted into fears that the lack of food could drive people to desperate measures including selling their possessions and trading sex for food.
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Echo, the European Commission’s humanitarian arm, stated that nine in 10 IDPs are living with host families in the north east rather than in camps, amid food shortages that are raising tension in many households.
Thomas Dehermann-Roy, the head of Echo’s central Africa office said: “It is easier to host your neighbours, friends and family when everything is fine, but when food becomes scarce, tensions are raised.
“Some people are moving to camps as the living situation with host families becomes too harsh – it is a worrying trend and sign of a deteriorating situation.”
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In a chat with NAIJ.com, Ezeikel Manzo, press officer at the National Emergency Management Agency, Abuja, declined comments on the situation adding that the agency receive people at camps daily.
“I cannot confirm to you that they are returning to the camp because of hunger. It is only the state government that can say that. But I want to state that we receive people people in all the camps in the north east everyday. Some of these people are from towns that have been liberated by the military,” he said.
Meanwhile, the United States government says that it has spent over $200 million on intervention programmes across states affected by Boko Haram.
Michael Harvey, the director, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Nigeria Mission stated this while speaking with journalists in Maiduguri on Wednesday, March 23.
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