“During the lockdown, the National Emergency Management Agency came here with two buckets and liquid soap so that we can wash our hands for prevention of the coronavirus disease. But they did not bring foodstuffs or any other palliatives for us, even though our major problem is hunger,” Luka Yadume said, sadness and despair written all over his face as he spoke of the travails of internally displaced persons at an IDP camp in New Kuchingoro, a sleepy village in the Abuja Municipal Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory.

The interview with Yadume took place during a visit to the IDP camp on July 13, 2020. ‎Yadume is the secretary of the camp, which has about 2,000 residents, mostly refugees from Borno and Adamawa states, who had been displaced from their homes by Boko Haram.

The New Kuchingoro IDP camp, a ramshackle, squalid, barely habitable cluster of tents ‎made of tarpaulin, zinc and fabric, sprang up in 2014 in what was hitherto undeveloped hectares of land filled with cashew trees.

Six years after the IDPs settled in the camp, the residents still lack the most basic amenities.

Some old women sat on the floor, under the tree shade, looking on, silently, as Yadume spoke of challenges faced by residents of the camp. Children, clad in dirty and torn clothes, ran about the camp, seemingly oblivious of their unfortunate situation. The few youths around ‎sat in a group under another tree, discussing in subdued tones.

Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/homeless-and-hopeless-idps-in-abuja-face-second-eviction-from-temporary-homes/

I wonder why we treat our own without regards.