More than one of every 200 children aged under five at a camp in northeast Nigeria died in just two weeks in early August, according to Reuters calculations based on data from aid agency Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on Friday.

The northeast has been embroiled for almost a decade in a war with Islamist insurgents Boko Haram and, more recently, Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA).
Under a government program, hundreds of thousands of people living in the region are being moved for safety to fortified garrison towns, ringed by farms, recaptured from the militants.

In a camp in one of those towns – Bama – MSF teams found that 33 out of an estimated 6,000 children under five died in the two weeks from 2 Aug., the agency said.

“A lot of children are already in a critical state upon arrival, and poor assistance and access to healthcare further deteriorates their condition,” said Katja Lorenz, MSF’s representative in Abuja, in the statement.

Despite the presence of government and international aid agencies, “the health and nutrition situation has been allowed to deteriorate up to the current crisis point,” she said.

http://www.theguildng.com/in-northeast-nigerian-camp-one-in-200-young-children-died-over-two-weeks/