It was not entirely shocking to hear that Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps in Nigeria have continued to record increasing birth rates, especially following reports of rape and violation of women and girls in many of these camps by security operatives and camp officials. What is disturbing however, is the rising toll of births. An article by Kreazetofa Odey on December 8, 2016; recounting the words of Mohammed Gujibawu; an IDP camp manager, reported that "no fewer than 3,213 pregnancies were recorded in Bakassi camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, between June and December this year (2016)". He also reported further that "there are 2,234 breastfeeding mothers among the 21,202 IDPs, the camp presently hosts".
These statistics are particularly interesting for a number of reasons: firstly, they represent records from Bakassi camp, which is just one of the 32 IDP camps remaining in Borno state, according to a NEMA report on November 1, 2016. Secondly, the 21,202 IDPs in Bakassi camp alone, which has grown from the initial 4,743 IDPs when the camp was opened, include both male and female IDPs, and although it is not clear how many male and female IDPs are in Bakassi camp, we would not be entirely wrong to put the ratio of women to babies at 10:1, or even worse. Thirdly, the challenges identified by the Bakassi IDP camp manager: inadequate supply for infants and adults, inadequate school learning materials for the children, lack of potable water, inadequate supply of drugs for underage patients, and absence of ambulance, completely left out the very significant challenge of violation and sexual harassment of women and girls. We can just go on and on!
The nature of IDPs in Nigeria is becoming a daily cause of concern that will most definitely to have a ripple effect on the Nigerian state, as well as implications on issues of mortality rate (infant and adult), population growth, unemployment, crime rate, among several others, in the very near future.
The Nigerian government seem to have left a lot to chance in the administration of IDPs and IDP camps in Nigeria, and unfortunately, the consequences would only manifest in the future, which is not too far from now...
