• We’re dying of hunger, Mangu inmates cry for help
From Jude Dangwam, Jos
no fewer than 450 Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs), who survived the recent onslaught against some communities and villages in Mangu Local Government, Plateau State, have cried out to the authorities for help, insisting that they are dying of hunger in the camp.
They are currently quartered inside a 14-room hostel facility built by the National Association of Mwagavul Students, Federal College of Education, Pankshin Chapter, directly opposite the college. The displaced families said they were overwhelmed especially in the areas of hygiene, food and accommodation.
A third of the population of them are children of different ages, ranging from crying babies with running noses to minors, who roam the facility with dirty clothes. There are also exhausted women, many of whom fled their homes in such haste, that they came with very few items to support the kind of life they have to endure in the camp.
Nansat Kyenkat is a widow from Washna village of Mangu. Her eyes had sunk with a lifebuoy of pains and stress. She decried the condition of their stay in the camp: “Our condition is getting worse by the day and relief is far from near. We are not even sure when we are going to leave here.
“We have been living here for two months now purely from the support we get from well-meaning individuals and organizations. The Mwagavul Development Association (MDA) has been the one moving round to share any support they get to us and other camps.
“Our concern now is that the support is no longer coming as it used to be. The officials of MDA are also helpless. We look up to them for our needs always, but also, they look up to others to get support for us.
“Some of us had fallen sick on different occasions. Some people that got money, used it to get medical help. Some borrowed money from members of the community to take their loved ones to the hospital. But we were told yesterday not to be collecting money from members of the community again.
“We now cook once a day and eat one meal in a whole day. But before now, we cooked food twice a day. The situation overpowered MDA, so we now cook only ones.
“Some often move around to look for fruits like mangoes, or some remnants of food in the community. Some of us go into bushes to look for firewood that we will use later for cooking.
“The ingredients we use to cook our food are a different ball game, we don’t have pots for cooking. We borrow pots from members of this community. There is no source of water close by here, so we go to a distance to fetch water.
“Our children have been falling sick regularly because of lack of mattresses. They keep roaming around especially when they don’t get food. Some of them end up putting their hands into other people’s things just to survive, which is not good.
“Some of the kids stool anyhow. A woman is laying down inside there, sick. They have gone to the hospital three times, but there was no sign of relief.
“In one room like this, you will see 15 people inside. Some are 20 in this small room that you’re seeing. Some of the one-room facilities are hosting one family, a man and his wife, alongside their children inside. We are afraid of outbreak of diseases here. I think the congestion is not good for our health but we have no choice.
“We use mats, some use their wrappers to spread on the floor and sleep on them. Some were lucky to get small mattresses and they have been using them. Before now, MDA did give us food, soaps and other things.
But they said their hands are tight at the moment.
“Like this bag of maize, I am sorting out to go and grind today, we were given N1500 for the grinding. I am asking that we contribute N100 each to add to what we were given. But it turned out to be a problem, because some don’t have any money, talk more of contributing.
“Aside from this bag of maize, we have one that is on the ground. If we grind one bag like this it usually takes us for four days. We normally use this big pot ‘size 50’ to feed the entire population of 450 in this facility.
“The cooking is mostly water, salt and seasoning with little oil added to it. No other ingredients. If after eight days these bags that I have finished and there is no other help through the MDA, we will just wait and see what God will do.”
Madam Nanchin Naanchin is a mother of three from Tyop village, Gindiri Road, Mangu Local Government. She is currently living at the Local Government Primary School, Bungha Camp: “We don’t have enough food here.
“Sometimes, we spend two days without food, together with the children. We are hungry and we are not finding it easy. We don’t have clothes, not even mattresses to sleep on and the classrooms are very cold.
“We seriously need help in this camp. There are three children currently in the hospital. That is why we are appealing for support.
Some of the children don’t even have shoes, especially these male children. They don’t have trousers completely!
“You will see them roaming the camp without trousers. They have only shirts in this kind of weather. We don’t know what to do because we don’t have anything. We left our villages without even a spoon.
“If we eat, it’s some people that support us. If we don’t get support, that is how we are going to drink water and sleep for that day.”
Gabriel Iliya is one of the survivors. He is a native of Dungmunan community earlier attacked by assailants: “The basic thing we need is food. We don’t have means to cater for ourselves at the moment.
“After food, then accommodation and followed by healthcare. There are cases of fever already in the camp. MDA has been the one helping us with some drugs.
“Most of us came here healthy. But the condition we have found ourselves contributed to these sicknesses. You sleep on the floor and this is not what you’re used to. And the weather here is very cold.”
Obadiah John is the camp leader. He told Daily Sun: “We are congested.
We have to divide ourselves into two. There are some at Rabwak and some in Sagas community.
“Our biggest problems are food, accommodation, beds and then drugs.
Most of us use mats and it is not everybody that has a mat. Some do spread sacks on the floor and sleep on them.
“We are appealing to government, faith based-organisations and kind spirited individuals to listen to our cries and give care and support to us.”
