A total of 450 persons died from ailments and malnutrition across the various camps of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno State.
This is notwithstanding the over N600 million governor, Kashim Shettima claims to be spending every month to feed the IDPs.
The tragedy was confirmed by the State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Haruna Mshelia, at a Press briefing in which he said that statistics shows that, a total of 54,000 children under the ages of 5 and below were recorded in all the resettlement camps, in which 98 children about 1.5 percent had severe cases of malnutrition and died in 2015.
Mshelia said the figure of the dead toll for children was misquoted as 450 in some newspapers instead of 98.
The Health Commissioner said the 450 deaths recorded across the IDPs camps were made up of adult and children as a result of common ailments such as, malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, measles and malnutrition.
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Dr. Mshelia pointed out that all children under five years living at IDP camps were screened every 2-3 months for evidence of malnutrition, stressing that a child can be screened up to four times a year.
According to him; “In 2015, over 200,000 children were screened, out of which, 6,444 were found to be severely malnourished and therefore treated through Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) and Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) programmes of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA), and as well supported by Nutrition Programme Support Partners like UNICEF, Save the Children (SC), Action Against Hunger (AAH) among others.
“However, the National Demographic and Health Survey Data (NDHS- 2013) reveals that even the North-east that had suffered much due to insurgency, has an under-five mortality rate of 160 deaths per 1,000, second only to the North-west with 185 deaths per 1,000 population.”
Mshelia commended all the Health Care Partners, especially Medicine SAN Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) French Section for not only providing care for malnourished children in the state, but also renovated and equipped most structures and facilities at Umaru Shehu General Hospital in Bulumkutu, State Specialists Hospital, General Mamman Shuwa Memorial Hospital (Nursing Home), all in Maiduguri Metropolis.