15 Internally Displaced Persons have died while dozens are receiving treatment at the General Hospitals in Katsina and Jibia from the IDP camp in Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State.
Jibia has been in the news for six weeks in a row, over incessant attacks by armed bandits on communities along the Jibia-Batsari and Jibia-Maradi border.
About 15 thousand IDPs from those attacks are now taking refuge at the IDP camp in Jibia where the camp’s chairman, Sada Salisu, said fifteen of them have died of trauma-related conditions in the last three months.
He also disclosed that within the period 35 pregnant women had given birth in the camp which houses IDPs from nine villages that are now completely deserted.
Salisu listed the villages to include Kwarai, Zango, Farfaru, Shinfida, Tsauni, Gurbin Magarya, Garin Maiwuya and Tsambe.
While lamenting the sanitary conditions and acute water shortage at the camp, Salisu commended the state and Jibia Local Governments for providing them with two meals per day.
“Also, there are no enough mattresses at the camp, many of us, especially the men usually go to Jibia and Magama towns to find other places to pass the night.
“Our children, about 3,000 of them in this camp are now out of school while our men have lost means of livelihood which is farming.
“The bandits have stolen our animals, burnt our houses and shops and chased us out of our farms, even if we are resettled back in our villages they will not allow us to cultivate our farms”, Salisu lamented.
One of the IDPs, Rukayya Abubakar from Kwari village, narrated that in Kwari alone eleven communities were sacked by the bandits.
“The bandits came on motorcycles, about a hundred motorcycles with three bandits on each motorcycle, they attacked Sanusawa, Tsinin Kaya, Garin Aikau, Garin Magajiya, Garin Jita and Farfaru, now more than 2,000 of us from those communities are taking refuge in this section of the camp.
“In my family house, they kidnapped eight people including my husband, his sister with her three children, my son in-law and two other persons, they have been in their custody for the past three weeks, we plead with the government to rescue them.
Another woman from Farfaru said more than 70 people were abducted from those six villages and were still in the custody of the bandits.
When contacted, the Chairman of Jibia Local Government Area, Bishir Sabiu said the council, with support from the state government, has provided enough relief materials to cater for the IDPs in Jibia.
“These include mattresses, blankets, three square meals and routine medical services.
“In order to ensure that they are well taken care of, we appointed leaders from among them and we entrusted these leaders who are also IDPs with the welfare of their people, we hand over everything to them, both food and relief items.
“Ask the IDP leaders, the local council gives them 15 bags of rice for their feeding everyday in addition to N200 thousand every five days, just for their feeding.
“In the mean time we have received assurances from security agencies that those of them from Shinfida will be returned to their village soon, they fled when the soldiers withdrew but the governor has spoken with the Chief of Army Staff and the soldiers have been redeployed to Shinfida, the IDPs will resettle soon”, Sabiu noted.
Isma’il Adamu