Insurgency denies 820,000 IDPs healthcare in N’East, says WHO

The North East Emergency Manager for World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Collins Owill, has said that insecurity and hard-to-reach areas denied 820,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) access to healthcare in North East.

Owill disclosed this yesterday in WHO’s 2016-2019 Report released to journalists in Maiduguri, Borno State.

The decade-long Boko Haram terrorism in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states has claimed thousands of lives and property.

“The humanitarian crisis in its 10th year, the state of health in the region has been negatively impacted by multiple factors, including the devastation of the healthcare system and frequent displacement of people during the conflict,” said the report.

It added that there were influx of IDPs into camps and host communities of Maiduguri, Monguno, Dikwa, Pulka and Gwoza.

Insecurity, according to WHO’s omnibus report, led to the outbreak of diseases and destruction of the health system in insurgency-affected states.

“Affected population remains at high risk of diseases like cholera, measles, meningitis and viral haemorrhagic fevers, such as

Lassa and Yellow fevers,” said Dr. Chima Onuekwe in the report.

He said that endemic malaria accounted for 50 per cent of mortality and morbidity in the region.

“More than half of the morbidity and mortality recorded in 2018 were attributed to malaria,” he said.

According to him, the immediate goal of the global health agency and partners was to reduce morbidity and mortality by scaling up life-saving among affected populations.

He noted that insecurity of mobile health teams and inadequate funding remained challenges of accessing IDPs with healthcare services.