Insurgency taking toll on healthcare in northern Nigeria

When in October 2010 a bomb exploded during the Independence Day celebrations in Abuja killing about two dozen people, Nigerians couldn't have dreamt of a time bombing would become a serial occurrence as we now have today.


Nowhere is immune to bombing by the dreaded Boko Haram sect-religious houses, Bus parks, markets and commercial centres, relaxation centres, health posts and residential areas have all been hit and thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of women and children abducted as well.

Scene of terror attack
This serial occurrence of bombings, wanton killings and kidnapping of people across parts of the Northern part of the country our correspondent gathered is already having its toils on the health situations of the Northern area of the country.

In her welcome remarks at the just concluded Sixty-seventh World Health Assembly (WHA) Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Margaret Chan, observed that at the beginning of 2014, the world began to witness a sudden re-emergence of wild polio virus which two years back it was almost certain there would be eradication.

She noted that this re-emergence prompted the recommendations for vaccination certification of travellers from the three countries known to be seeding outbreaks elsewhere – Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

According to Chan, "The factors responsible for this setback are largely beyond the control of the health sector". These she enumerated to include: Armed conflict that flies in the face of international humanitarian law, civil unrest, migrant populations, weak border controls, poor routine immunisation coverage, Bans on vaccination by militant groups and the targeted killing of polio workers.

From the WHO data, across the world, each year, nearly 1.4 million people lose their lives to violence. Women and girls experience specific forms of violence that are often hidden. And globally, one in three women experience physical and/or sexual violence at least once in her life. For every person who dies as a result of violence, many more are injured and suffer from a range of adverse physical and mental health outcomes.

In Nigeria, the insurgence of Boko Haram since 2010 has not only led to deaths of people it has equally led to the disruption in healthcare delivery in many parts of the affected states, our correspondent learnt.

"We have on record that health posts were burnt down in some of the affected villages in Yobe State and as such it is not possible for pregnant women and their children to access routine immunisation at these health posts", says former President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Osahon Enabulele.

The states of Borno, Adamawa, Nassarawa, Bauchi, Kano and recently, Plateau and Benue are not left out of the effects of violence and insecurity on healthcare delivery.

One of the bomb blasts, which occurred in Jos town, was close to the Teaching Hospital gate and many were afraid that the terrorist may be close to targeting health facilities of that magnitude having succeeded in burning down village health posts previously.