When they took to their heels to seek refuge at Gassol and Bali Local Council Areas in Taraba State, following the eruption of the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States, they never envisaged or imagined that their predicaments would be worsened. These were the worries and complaints of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at camps in the aforementioned council areas when The Guardian visited the camps recently.

Investigations reveal that apart from the failure of the state governments to reach out to them with some relevant facilities and food items, some of the host communities are not friendly to them, as they have continued to take advantage of their condition to maltreat them.

While sexual abuse and harassment is on-going in the camps and host communities, relief materials meant to cushion their predicaments are being diverted. Also observed was the poor sanitary condition of most of the camps, which if not urgently addressed, may lead to massive outbreak of communicable diseases which would eventually lead to deaths.It would be recalled that over 30 persons have in the past been reported killed following an outbreak of disease in one of the camps located in Bali Local Council.

Narrating her ordeal in the hands of men from the host community, 17-year old Safiya Amina, who is presently pregnant, told The Guardian the way and manner males from the host community have continued to take advantage of them simply because they are taking refuge in their houses.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Safiya, whose pregnancy is now between six and seven months, said she was not prepared for it, “but because of the situation I found myself, I was left with no other option than to bow to the pressure of one of the men” whom according to her ” is now denying and even threatening my life and that of my mother.”

Narrating how his father was brutally murdered in Borno State by the insurgents, she said that the State Ministry of Women and Child Development, came to her rescue.She was optimistic that the boy and his parents would be compelled to sign pregnancy maintainance agreement.

At the Ministry for Women and Child Development, The Guardian learnt that relevant measures to reach out to the boy’s family have been put in place.
A top official of the ministry who confirmed that the Ministry was aware of Safiya’s situation, said the Ministry is leaving no stone unturned to bring the boy to book, adding that the government is going to take severe action against him so that it would serve as deterrent to other men who would want to do the same thing to the IDPs.

Safiya, who believed that the condition would not deter her from actualizing her dream of becoming a doctor, prevented The Guardian from seeing or speaking to her mother, as well as taking her photograph lamenting that her present situation has made her mother to fall sick.

Some leaders of the IDPs as well as the host communities, who spoke to The Guardian, felt sad that the state government has not deemed it fit to fashion out ways of addressing the ills presently confronting the IDPs.

According to one of them who gave his name as Emmanuel, ” the problems we are going through would have been a thing of the past had it been the government listened to our cries because they are aware of what we are passing through here.”

Stressing that several petitions on the ongoing ills have been written to the state government by the IDPs, he expressed dismay over the inability of the state government to come to their aid.

“The deplorable situation in the camps has forced some of them to begin to seek for alternative means of survival. Some of the illicit activities some IDPs now indulge in, as a result of the victimization and harassment in the camps, included prostitution and child labour. Some well-to-do people come here to take underaged children to work for them in their houses.”

Sad that child labour in the camps is now a common thing, because some of these rich people connive with the camp officials to take the children to their houses to be used as servants, Emmanuel appealed to the federal government and other organisations saddled with the responsibility of protecting children to come to their aid.

Also giving the IDPs sleepless nights is the continued spread of HIV/AIDS in the camps. The inability of the persons affected by the epidemic to access anti-retrovirus drugs due to insecurity, has continued to make pregnant women deliver HIV positive children.

Saddened by deplorable condition in the camps, one of the HIV-infected mothers told The Guardian that “most of our children here are also positive” adding that they would have been negative had the security personnel allowed them access to drugs during their pregnancies.

Commenting on the situation, a senior staff of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) Tino Paul, told The Guardian that the state government has not abandoned the IDPs, stating that government has not at any time ceased to make relief materials available to them.

But investigation reveals that apart from the United Nation High Commission for Refugees, and some Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs) as well as Faith Based Organizations that have been reaching out to IDPs in the state, the state government seems not to be perturbed by the traumatic condition of the IDPs.

Saddened by this development, the Executive Chairman of the Human Rights Commission, Ben Angwu, during his recent visit to IDP camps in the state could not hold back the back tears, following government’s lukewarm attitude to them.

The HRC boss who could not fathom why the state was lagging behind in providing assistance to the IDPs, said the commission would not continue folding its hands while the rights of the IDPs are being trampled upon by the authorities concerned.