• How I watched my child pass away – victim’s mother
From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
It was a fresh dose of anguish for hundreds of people, especially women, taking refuge at Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in northeast Borno State, an area that has been affected by more than one decade of insurgency.
Sacked from their homes by Boko Haram insurgents after attacks on their communities, and still overwhelmed with the pain of losing their husbands in the violence, the IDPs are now battling a new challenge at the camp.
Fresh outbreaks of cholera and measles have claimed the lives of dozens of children, youngsters and adults.
As gathered, no fewer than 496 persons have died from measles and cholera between 2022 and 2024 in the state, according to the Borno State Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) 2022-2024 data. The 2022 disease outbreak recorded the highest fatalities with 362 deaths from 11,230 suspected cases and 137 cases confirmed after the laboratory investigations.
Mothers’ pain
One of the victims of such outbreaks was little Falmata. She died after a battle with cholera, according to the mother, Fatima Ibrahim as she sank into a mat spread in her tent, her ‘new home’ at the Muna IDP camp located on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Borno’s capital.
On the hot afternoon of the reporter’s visit, she recalled the events that led to the death of her daughter and her sorrow.
“Falmata was one year and half then. We travelled to Mafa for a wedding of a family member and we just returned to Maiduguri. She started vomiting in the night. There was outbreak in the camp and people were talking about cholera,” she stated.
She said she was confused when her daughter became weak following her prolonged vomiting.
“I didn’t know what to do. I was just praying to Allah to have mercy. It was a big pain for me. I watched my daughter pass on but couldn’t help,” she recalled. She recoiled and then gazed at the two women seated opposite her who were helping the reporter to interpret. At this point, Fatima’s eyes were already heavy with unshed tears. “I lost her,” she finally said.
For 30-year old Yagana Maina, who also lost her two sons in similar circumstances, the mention of cholera, diarrhoea, vomiting or measles at the camp serves as a sad reminder of her loss.
Her two-year-old boy had died earlier in her village before the violence heightened. She revealed that the boy died of complications from suspected tetanus infection on his leg. She said she was scared of losing another son again within the spate of three years when his six-year-old boy fell sick.
“My son suffered from cholera. He was six years old then. He was vomiting and stooling throughout the night. He became weak in the morning. His brother died three years earlier. He was two years old then,” she explained.
Yagana Ali, a 40-year-old mother of five, escaped from Dikwa, a small town in the central part of Borno in 2015. Initially, she stayed in another IDP camp until months later when she joined her community members taking refuge at the Muna IDP camp.
She lost her husband in one of the terrorists attack on her town in Mafa Local Government area. “The cholera outbreak was like a second pain to many of us,” she said.
Congestion fuels disease outbreaks
Camp officials told Saturday Sun that the initial congestion at many IDP camps, poor water supply and sanitation fuelled the outbreak of communicable diseases like cholera and measles.
For instance, the population of Muna IDP camp has swelled to over 120, 000 since 2019 due to new arrival of displaced persons, a statistics from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) shows.
SEMA said the population surge puts more pressure on the water supply, toilets and other facilities at the camp, leading to poor hygiene and disease outbreaks. It, however, maintained that the resettlement exercise of the state government will tackle the challenge.
There are 304 IDP camps and 2,144 camp-like settlements present in Borno, parts of Yobe and Adamawa states affected by insurgency according to a 2023 displacement tracker by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Awareness, routine immunisation improve situation- UNICEF
The state government and other development partners have been conducting awareness at the camps to sensitise IDPs on hygiene, detection and reporting of disease outbreak.
UNICEF field office in Borno said it had been embarking on all-year round immunisation exercise in all IDP camps and communities against preventable diseases.
Health Manager, Dr Clement Adam maintained that the sensitisation and routine immunisation through synergy between the governments and partners have brought the outbreaks under control.
“UNICEF and other partners are providing immunisation basically to prevent diseases from happening, to build resistance against the disease, to overcome the debilitating effect of the disease,” Adam told Saturday Sun.
Adam said confirmed cases of measles dropped to 89 at the onset of the heat season this year from the 195 cases in 2022. But he insisted that there was more ground to cover.
“There are still gaps in the immunisation. We’ve only recorded 57 per cent success and a lot needs to be done,” he admitted.
He said part of the effort to bridge the gap in the sensitisation and immunisation is the training of community minimisers, mostly volunteers by UNICEF. These minimisers help to also sensitize the locals to get their children immunised against cholera, measles and other diseases, he informed.
UNICEF also regularly distributes leaflets containing messages on disease prevention and control written in local languages, for the IDPs and community members.
Measles, cholera dangerous
Medical experts have described both measles and cholera as easily transmutable, dangerous but preventable.
Head of Community Health Department at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Dr Ozurumba Chigozi, said in a phone interview that improving water supply and sanitation at the IDP camps and communities remain the best ways to prevent the outbreak of the diseases.
He explained that cholera is a water-borne disease, easily spread through contaminated water, foods, consumables and persons in unclean environment with open defecation or poor toilets.
He said the bacteria which cause cholera infection called vibrio cholerae, produce toxin in the intestine and make affected persons stool repeatedly, lose fluid and salt in the body system.
“It causes diarrhoea and then dehydration. A severely infected person can die within 24 hours if not stabilised,” he explained.
Many IDPs said they have experienced this discomfort and lost loved ones, hoping the ongoing immunization will keep them from another pain.
