Earlyface

Pathetic scenes from  refugee camps on
the   fringes of the Cameroon-Nigeria border
reveal that women give birth to babies in
harsh  conditions. Feelers from the camps
indicate that lack of medical supplies have
resulted in deaths of several persons from
preventable diseases because of the horrific
living conditions.
No food! No water! No money! The
refugees  have left the comfort of their
homes and are making do with newly
cleared church compound, sleeping on bare
floor; come rain, come shine. Pity those who
are weaning children with little or nothing
to eat. Not too far away from the camps
are  pit latrines. The only source of water,
two wells, is contaminated. Men, women,
children, old and young cannot go far for
fear of being attacked by insurgents
suspected to be members of Boko Haram,
who are said to be parading the
neighbourhood  looking for  who to
conscript into their Islamic army or
Cameroonian gendarmes.
In October, some insurgents invaded sleepy
Gwoza community, shooting sporadically,
killing people amid shouts of Allahu Akbar
(God is Great) and disappeared afterwards
toward Kurana Bassa village that leads to
Gwoza  hills. Intelligence reports indicate
that some insurgents are still hiding on the
Gwoza hills since the declaration of a state
of emergency in the three states of Borno,
Yobe and Adamawa  by President Goodluck
Jonathan a little over six months ago.
Many of the victims who fled the attack are
currently refugees in the premises of a
village church—Church of Christ in Nations,
COCIN –  in Galma village, Cameroon. The
church which was founded in 1904 with
headquarters in Jos, Plateau State was
originally known as Church of Christ in
Nigeria.
Despite appeals by Borno State government
for them to return, their spokesperson
declared: “We cannot return to our
residence in Gwoza council area until the
security of lives and property is guaranteed
with deployment of  soldiers, because even
the policemen in our area are not spared by
the insurgents  whenever they attack our
communities  in Gwoza.”
Recent reports put the number of Nigerians
held  in Niger Republic and Cameroon as a
result of the attacks by Boko Haram
members at 70,000. A United Nations report
said the Nigerian crisis had pushed nearly
40,000 refugees over the northern border
into Niger and Cameroon in a drive that was
straining food supplies in the drought-
prone country.
The UN Office for the Co-ordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in its latest
report, indicated that a total of 37,332
refugees had fled to Niger, nearly 29,000 of
who are officially nationals of that country.
The report said that this figure was three
times more than expected, an indication of a
difficulty in developing a humanitarian
response.
Thousands of refugees have also spilled into
Cameroon, prompting Nigeria to reach out
for help in policing their shared border. The
deputy governor of Borno State, Alhaji
Zannah Umar Mustapha, who visited the
border towns in Gwoza Local Government
Area, called on Nigerians who fled to that
neighbouring country to come back home
as government was making necessary
arrangements for their safety.
But over 14,000 displaced Christians, in an
open letter addressed to Governor Kashim
Shettima of Borno State by the Gwoza
Christian Community (GCCA), made a
passionate plea to the governor, stating the
plight of Christians in the local government.
The letter claim that a “total of 618 families
(not individuals) have been displaced from
their houses to various places in Nigeria as
well as  places in Cameroon.” “There were a
total of 46 churches that have been burnt
and destroyed while a total of 541 houses
were also burnt and destroyed.
“As at October 23, 2013, a total of 46
villages were completely displaced; while a
total of 108 houses have been vandalized,
some of these houses are being occupied by
the insurgents atop the mountain hills.
More of concern is the plight of 68 widows
whose husbands were either shot or
slaughtered in front of their family
members. We have full documentation of
these atrocities against Christians and yet
your deputy governor, during his two visits
to the area, didn’t find  time to even
commiserate with the Christians, but were
deliberately avoided,” the community
chairman, Elder  Ayuba J. Bassa,  explained.
A feeble-looking woman gave birth to a
baby at the refugees’ camp where displaced
persons from Gwoza are exposed to harsh
weather conditions especially as harmattan
winds have started blowing with ferocious
intensity. She was helped by equally hungry-
looking refugees. She sleeps in the open
field with her baby under the cold weather.
Moved by the development, the National
President of the Christian Association of
Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, on a
recent ecclesiastical visit to the region,
donated N1 million for the purchase of relief
materials for the refugees  and other victims
of the insurgent attacks through the
leadership of GCC.
Our correspondent narrated  sights of  joy
in the refugees camps that drove even the
GCCA to shed tears. Most notable sight of
appreciation came from a widow who was
pregnant when her husband was killed. She
gave birth at the refugee camp. She had two
measures of grain left and was sleeping in
the open field with her baby under the cold
harmattan when she was given a bag of
maize, some small cash, as well as salt, Maggi
and slippers. She could only murmur, saying
“there are still kind-hearted people.”
Another man who nearly lost both hands to
the bullets of Boko Haram insurgents could
hardly pick even the hospital card for his
treatment. He too was given a bag of grain,
salt, Maggi, and slippers as well as cash. He
was so joyful that tears started rolling down
his cheeks while muttering words of thanks
to the CAN National President.
A young girl, who survived the bullet that
pierced the right side of her face, also got a
bag of grain, salt, Maggi as well as cash and
slippers. She was filled with joy.
Another  recipient  was an indigene of
Michika Local Government in Adamawa State
who was assisted with a bag of maize.
According to his testimony, he can be
described as the proverbial cat with nine
lives. He did not just survive the insurgents
bullet which pierced through his stomach
and came out through the back,  he had
very little food left to feed his family of over
15.
GCCA distributed the relief materials to the
needy in six recently affected villages. Efforts
by the church  to spread the gospel to the
widows in the refugee camps  were
hampered by violent attacks  by  insurgents
for three consecutive days without security
intervention. Pleas for local leaders, emirs
and district heads’ intervention fell on deaf
ears as GCCA representatives were directed
to, instead, seek security assistance from
neighbouring Cameroon.