Jos displaced grapple with food, water, medicine shortages

Water, medicine and food supplies are running low for an estimated 10,000 people displaced by violence in Jos, northern Nigeria, following three days of violent clashes.



Calm has been restored to the city following sectarian violence that broke out on 27 November, but thousands of residents whose houses were burned down during the three days of fighting are still sheltering in mosques, churches, army barracks and hospitals.



"The city has virtually run out of food, water and medical supplies," Baba Hassan Ibrahim, deputy speaker of Plateau State parliament, told IRIN. "The injured and the displaced are bearing the brunt because they are surviving solely on inadequate relief items."



No medium-term government emergency programme has yet been announced for those who have lost their homes.



Jos grain market now “rubble”



Food shortages have been heightened by the burning down of over 3,000 grain shops and warehouses in Laranto grain market, the city's only food market, which was the scene of much of the violence.



"The whole city relies on this market for food, but nothing is left of it but rubble, ashes, and mangled remains of roofing. Even we who sell [food] to the city don't have enough to eat," said trader Mohammed Sani while clearing the smouldering debris that used to be his shop.



Many other traders who have some supplies left, are too nervous to bring them to the city, he said.



According to Dan Tom, a federal lawmaker and director of non-profit organisation the Nigerian Red Cross in Jos, emergency food and medical supplies are insufficient to meet the needs of the injured and displaced. The Red Cross, the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Plateau state government, and other NGOs are struggling to meet people’s needs, he said.



Hospitals



The city's three hospitals treating residents injured in the riots are fast running out of medical supplies, according to Tom. Hundreds of people have been hospitalised in Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), the state-run Plateau Specialist Hospital and an Evangelical Churches of West Africa missionary hospital.



"The situation is really bad. Medicines are in short supply and hundreds of patients have been admitted in the past few days." Many of the new arrivals have gunshot wounds and machete cuts, he said.



Samaila Abdullahi Mohammed, an MP in Nigeria's lower house said other patients being treated by the Red Cross at Jos Central Mosque have not received "even a morsel of bread" from the state government.



Meanwhile families, whose homes still stand, are starting to return.



"I have returned to my house which has been partially burnt and I feel luckier than those that have completely lost their homes to fire. But having no water or food to eat, I feel like returning to the [displaced] camp where I can get some little food and water when I need it," resident Lawan Kabir told IRIN.



Government efforts



A team of parliamentarians arrived in Jos on 1 December to investigate the killings. Human rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the government to prosecute those responsible.



As life starts to return to normal for some, HRW Africa director Georgette Gagnon said the state authorities must now address the root causes of the violence to stop it from recurring. Key to this, she said, is to urgently change state laws across the country that currently discriminate against “non-indigenes”, or those who cannot trace their ancestry to the state, which has been at the root of much sectarian violence in Nigeria.



On 1 December the Plateau State authorities arrested 16 people from Niger, accusing them of being hired to promote the violence. Ambassador from Niger to Nigeria Isa Ibrahim rejected this claim, saying the arrested were, like many Nigeriens, simply working as water vendors in Jos.



Khalid Abubakar, imam of Jos central mosque, accused the state government of trying to shield the police, whom he said committed much of the killing. HRW, too, said they had heard reports of several instances in which people were killed by members of security forces responding to the violence.



"We do not want to comment on such grave allegations. The federal government and the lower house have promised an investigation into the violence. It is only fair for us to allow them to come out with their findings, rather than respond to unsubstantiated accusations," said Bala Kassim, Plateau State police spokesman.



aa/aj/cb