Famine and Disease in Nigerian Refugee Camps for Internally Displaced Peoples: A Sad Reflection of Our Times

Abstract

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country with over 180 million inhabitants. Its history has been marred by ethnic and religious conflict, typified by the Biafran war of 1967-1970 and the recent Boko Haram insurgency. As a result of the latter conflict, there are hundreds of thousands of internally-displaced people living in refugee camps with little or no resources. Starving children are commonplace in what is one of the world’s largest oil producing nations. In this article, we examine the consequences of the current crises, and the efforts of the current government, non-governmental organisations and outside agencies to solve the current healthcare inequalities in a resource-rich, but currently disorganised country