Desperate children who escaped evil Boko Haram terrorists dying of starvation in refugee camps – because corrupt officials are stealing their food
When food does come, families are given the same amount of plain, nutritionless rice and beans regardless of how many mouths there are to feed
THESE tragic children escaped the clutches of Boko Haram – only to find themselves facing starvation in ill-equipped refugee camps.
The emaciated kids are receiving treatment for malnourishment in a feeding centre operated by Doctors Without Borders in Maiduguri, north-east Nigeria.
Doctors Without Borders spokeswoman Shaista Aziz said up to one in four of the tots in the 110-bed facility are dying.
She confirmed most of the kids have come from refugee camps.
Parents forced to live in the camp complain there is not enough food – and when food does arrive on-site, it is insubstantial.
Dr Natalie Roberts said the feeding programme in Maiduguri “has quadrupled in size in the last weeks, but each time it expands it becomes rapidly full.”
The situation is the same elsewhere, and children across Maiduguri are suffering because of it – in one local camp, 20 kids under the age of five died in one week alone.
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At Farm Centre Camp, on the outskirts of Maiduguri, residents said they had received no food in over a month.
And when refugees at the camp are given food, it consists of only rice and beans.
Families are handed a shovelful of the meal a day, whether there are 12 mouths to feed or one.
Maiduguri is estimated to house between 1.2million and 2million refugees, but only a fraction of this number live in camps.
According to , this is because “most of the camps have become centres of hunger, malnutrition and communicable diseases.”
Last week, Nigeria’s Senate announced it was opening an investigation into allegations food aid is being diverted elsewhere.
The Economics and Financial Crimes Commission said it was looking into the same possibility a number of weeks ago.
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