Following the last Friday’s ethnic violence in Tingno town, Lamurde local government area of Adamawa state, numbers of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at designated Kupte IDP camp, in Lafiya- Lamorde continued to rise amid security and health challenges.
The majority of the displaced persons that thronged the camp situated in unsecured opened space of Kupte primary school are women and children looking distraught and staggered.
At least 34 persons were confirmed killed, 48 injured during the two days ethnic violence that erupted in Tingno which later snowballed to its environs.
During a visit to the camp on Tuesday morning, more displaced persons were registered as the number kept rising to over 1000 IDPs, according to camp’s officials.
In an interview, Abubakar Yahaya, Councilor representing Lafiya Ward, who doubles as chairman of Kupte camp said, for now, the local councils shouldered most of the responsibilities.
‘’We engaged local hunters to man the camp, and glory be to God, there is no problem.
‘’They (IDPs) are taking care of by both the Red Cross volunteers and local government health personnel are doing their best.
‘’ Though many are still coming already we have registered 978 IDPs.
‘’ A small clinic is provided to attend to health matters, as you can see here we are since early hours.
‘’ The major problem is shelter. The school is not enough, we need more beds and canopies to accommodate people.
‘’ We want the state government to also intervene with other basic amenities,’’ he urges.
Also corroborating, Magritte Obidah, a health worker at the camp said so far no death recorded in the camp but there were two cases of miscarriage and that could not be unconnected with the difficulties faced while on transit.
‘’ We recorded over 150 health cases but we do refer the serious and or complicated problems to either Lamurde or Numan General hospital for medication.
‘’ Mostly kids and mothers are falling sick on a daily basis but we are doing our best,’’ she said.
In the wake of deadly coronavirus pandemic the health worker expressed serious concern over a possible outbreak of disease, ‘’ we see in a camp like this, people are crowded and crumbled in one place, no social distancing and other preventing measures.
‘’ We are appealing to the concerned authorities to seriously help us with sanitizers, face masks and other preventing equipment (PPE).
‘’But seriously there is a lot to observe in the wake of the novel coronavirus,’’ she noted.
Confirming the sorry situation at the camp, the state secretary Red Cross (Nigeria) Shu’aibu Dauda said ‘’ our volunteers are there at the camp rendering first aid.
‘’ During our visit to Kupte designated to see the status of the camp and also to make some assessment so that we can come to there and help with some relief materials.
‘’During the visit we met with the Executive Chairman of Lamurde LGA and the IDPs which we told him as matter of urgency there is a need for government to provide security in camp because we observe there’s no adequate security in camp except the Vigilante and also to provide some basic amenities like Mats, mattresses ,mosquito net, toilet facilities .
‘’We were also told that there is food items provided by the government,’’ the Red Cross scribe said.
Chief Jonathan Alfred. Village Head of Kupte under Lafiya, expressed their readiness to continue to support the displaced persons, ‘’ this is service to humanity and the state government has supplied everything in the camp, but some well-meaning individuals have also contributed.
‘’So, as leaders we will render our support to at least ameliorate the suffering and trauma been faced by the displaced persons,’’ the local chief assured.
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