In Nigeria, clinic closure worsens crisis in displacement camp
In a camp for internally displaced persons in Anyiin, Benue State in central Nigeria, the closure of a medical post has left residents without accessible basic care. They are forced to seek treatment outside the camp, but many families cannot afford medical care, medicines, and transportation, Premium Times Nigeria reports.
Camp resident Anaor Saavuan said that her eight-month-old granddaughter had vomiting, diarrhea, and fever. After her condition worsened again, the woman took the child to a hospital outside the camp, where medical staff said she needed a blood transfusion. The family had no money for the procedure, and the child died on May 2. Saavuan believes her granddaughter could have survived if the clinic in the camp had continued operating. Her grandson was also diagnosed with an inguinal hernia and referred for surgery that the family cannot afford.
Costs of prenatal care
Thirty-two-year-old pregnant woman Naomi Terien said she has no money for regular prenatal checkups and has not yet undergone an ultrasound examination. According to her, medicines were previously provided free of charge at the camp medical post, but after its closure, treatment at the local primary healthcare center must be paid for.
Terien said that one prenatal visit to the European Economic Community Health Clinic in Anyiin usually costs her about 3,000 Nigerian naira. She also claims that pregnant women from the camp are charged for medicines, including multiple micronutrient supplements, or MMS. UNICEF consultant Dr. Terrence Akigir said MMS should be provided free of charge. The clinic attendant said she was not authorized to comment on whether the supplements are sold to patients and declined to provide further explanations.
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The clinic closed after 2021
Former medical post worker Helen Tsavvua said that Médecins Sans Frontières established the clinic in Anyiin in 2018. According to her, after MSF left, the facility was supported by the Victim Support Fund until January 2021, after which it was closed. Another former employee linked the closure to a lack of funding and the cessation of medicine supplies.
Premium Times Nigeria journalists visited the premises of the former clinic on the grounds of NKST Primary School in Anyiin: it was locked, with no medical staff or patients. Camp residents said that medicines donated by non-profit organizations are still stored in the building, but they cannot be accessed because there are no staff.
According to the International Organization for Migration, there were 464,543 internally displaced persons in Benue State; about 88,000 of them lived in camps and similar settlements. The state emergency management agency and the state health commissioner did not respond to the publication's inquiries about the situation in the camp.
