The Federal Ministry of Health on Friday, has described humanitarian crisis in Borno State as continually deteriorating and that unless drastically interventions put in a place, 5 children will die every hour in the next three months.
The National Coordinator of the Nigeria Center For Diseases Control, Abdulsalam Nasidi, stated this during a joint press briefing in Maiduguri yesterday.
Mr. Nasidi said "the situation in Borno is worse than what has been reported, many are still trapped. Not less than about 750,000 IDPs need urgently interventions in the next 3 months with food and health interventions.”
He added "because of the high prevalence of acute malnutrition in Borno. The meeting recognized that except this is addressed urgently, at least 5 children will die every hour and the impact on the health status of the population will be high."
He noted that the Minister of Health established a "Rapid Response Team" headed by Dr. Joshua Obasanya and deployed the teams to Borno to kick start the emergency response activities, in collaboration with the State Ministry of Health.
Additionally, the recent surge in military operations had made it possible for a large number of previously trapped populations to be rescued and brought to IDP camps and host communities. These persons present with a wide variety of health and nutritional challenges including malnutrition, diseases, diarrhea, measles, trauma and psycho-social conditions.
"In light of the above, the Federal government is stepping in to support the on going efforts of Borno State and partner agencies to effectively and efficiently address this response through enhanced and effective coordination resources mobilization." Mr. Nasidi disclosed.
However, The Borno Commisoner of Health, Dr. Haruna Mshellia, said the response did not start today and it might take months before the malnourished victims fully recovered, already National Emergency Management Agency has donated nutritional supplements to the affected children across 22 satellite camps spread all over 8 LGA of Borno state.
