Famine and disease in Nigerian refugee camps for internally displaced peoples: a sad reflection of our times
Nigeria is a land of great paradox. It is Africa’s most populous nation, an oil-rich land with significant gold, iron ore, tin, uranium and coal reserves, but with large sections of the over 181 million population left in grinding poverty (Central Intelligence Agency, 2016).1 The country has a complex ethno-sociological mix of peoples which echo an extremely varied land that stretches from the edge of the Sahara through the savannas of the Sahel and the vast, high altitude Jos plateau to tropical rain forests, steamy coastlines and river deltas (Figure 1—map of Nigeria).2 A physically beautiful land with deeply hospitable people, Nigeria faces an uncertain future with segments of the country currently seeking self-determination, such as in the Niger Delta and at the risk of repeating past conflicts, the Igbo peoples in the south-east of Nigeria.3 



Figure 1 
Map of Nigeria. Reproduced with permission.



Today, Nigeria lies across a fault line in Africa between the Muslim north, where Sharia law is commonplace, and the largely Christian south. This religious divide has added to the strong tribal identities which first became apparent to the outside world when the mainly Igbo south-east of Nigeria attempted to secede from the Federal Republic, declaring an independent Biafran Republic which lasted nearly three years from 1967 to 1970.4 The bloody war that ensued between the separatist Igbo regime in Enugu and the Federal Nigerian government, saw up to 3 million civilian deaths, mainly from starvation and the effects of chronic malnutrition, in a country that was only beginning to stand on its own feet, following independence from the UK in 1960. The bitter wounds of the Biafran war have ostensibly healed, but dig under the surface and memories are still fresh in those who survived.

In the mind of an outsider, Nigeria …