As Nigeria’s Northwest grapples with insecurity, over 500,000 Nigerians have been forced to flee their homes. When violence breaks out, vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities bear the heaviest brunt. In this report, The ICIR’s Nurudeen Akewushola travelled to Sokoto and Zamfara to document the stories of being disabled and displaced.

When terrorists invaded Kwanar Maje village in Zamfara one deadly evening in 2021, everyone scampered for safety. Some hid in their farmland, some hopped into the forest. 30-year-old disabled Lawal Musa also ran for his life as he stumbled intermittently while wobbling in the bush.

Even though Lawal luckily escaped, he came back to meet the lifeless body of his father, who had been gruesomely murdered by the terrorists. Traumatised and left on his own, Lawal now begs to make ends meet at Anka IDP camp following his displacement from his former village.

“We were chased from our village by bandits because they were killing people incessantly, but I was lucky to escape by God’s grace.

“The saddest moment of my life is that my father was killed by the terrorists,” Lawal said, his voice breaking intermittently.

Aside from the fact that Lawal has to contend with being disabled, he also battles with epilepsy with no means to access health care services. Amidst cold and harmattan seasons, Lawal sleeps on a bare floor, in the open.

Lawal is one of the people with disabilities whose lives were turned upside following terrorist attacks in Nigeria’s Northwest.

Missing data, failed policy

The security situation in Northwest Nigeria is fueling the fastest-growing displacement crisis in the country. The development has left many villages deserted, with people facing harsh conditions after losing their livelihoods or farmlands.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, as of May 2022, Zamfara, the epicentre of violence in the Northwest, records the highest number of displacements in the region, with over 172,798 IDPs (18 per cent of the total IDP population).

In Sokoto State, an estimated 71,289 IDPs were identified.

Amidst this raging conflict in the region are people with disabilities who have been identified to be disproportionately affected by displacement and are at greater risk of violence, discrimination and exclusion. While some of them are left behind, the ones who manage to escape face barriers in accessing humanitarian support such as food, sanitation, and medical assistance.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act in 2019. Section 25 of the law mandates the government to ensure the safety and protection of people with disabilities in all situations of risk, violence, emergencies, and natural disasters taking cognisance of their peculiar vulnerability.

As part of her response to the situation of displacement in the country, the federal government set up a committee to develop a policy to guide the management of IDPs in 2003. Various government and non-governmental groups rubbed their minds while gaining inspiration from existing international laws. The outcome of this effort, adopted nine years later, came to be known as the National Policy on Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria.

Approved in 2021, the overall goal of the policy is to strengthen the institutional mechanism and frameworks for the realisation of the rights, dignity, and well-being of vulnerable populations through the mitigation of impact and achievement of durable solutions to internal displacements in Nigeria. Part of the policy recognises people with disabilities.

According to the policy, IDPs with disabilities “shall receive medical care to the extent practicable, which shall include psychological and social services whenever necessary”.

“The physical environment(of IDP camps) shall be modified to improve movement, and those who need mobility devices such as wheelchairs or hearing aid equipment are to be given. Where necessary, they should also have access to trained personnel such as caregivers, physiotherapists, and sign language interpreters.

Additionally, information should be made accessible to them, IDPs with disabilities should be prioritised during service delivery, and children with disabilities should be enrolled in special schools.

Data gaps and widespread under-reporting make it challenging to assess the impact of terrorism ravaging the country on people with disabilities. This is due to the fact that most assessment reports limit indices to sex (male and female), age (children and aged) and geographical location, excluding people with disabilities. This makes it difficult to target them for possible humanitarian assistance.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/sokoto-zamfara-the-hard-realities-of-being-disabled-and-displaced-in-northwest-nigeria/

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