News / Nigeria

Thousands of children malnourished at Boko Haram displaced camps

Monday, 22 February 2016 7:09 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 22 February 2016 7:08 PM ]

Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) sit waiting to be served with food at Dikwa Camp, in Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, on February 2, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

A Nigerian health official says nearly 6,500 children were recorded to be severely malnourished in 2015 at camps set up for people made homeless by Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists.

Sule Mele, the head of the Borno State Primary Health Care Board, said on Monday that about 6,444 severe cases of malnutrition were recorded in the camps, while 25,511 others had mild to moderate symptoms.

Mele pointed to the deaths of some 459 children aged one to five in camps last year and said malnutrition has exacerbated childhood diseases such as diarrhea, vomiting and measles.

"Even if the children get enough to eat, they will become malnourished if the food they eat does not provide the proper amounts of micro-nutrients, vitamins and minerals to meet daily nutritional requirements," he noted.

In December 2015, the Nigerian government said the Boko Haram terrorist group had been "technically" defeated, but sporadic Boko Haram attacks in the northeastern part of the country still continue.

Some 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million others made homeless since the beginning of the Boko Haram militancy in Nigeria in 2009.

Boko Haram has spread its attacks from northeastern Nigeria, its traditional stronghold, to the neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

The militants have recently pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is primarily operating in Syria and Iraq.

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