Hungry And Traumatised, IDPs Protest In Maiduguri, Block Highway

Hundreds of Internally Displaced Persons have left their camps and have taken to the streets to protest against hunger and thirst in their respective camps. Mostly women and children, the visibly angry IDPs barricaded the city’s main entry point, causing a gridlock along the Kano Maiduguri highway. Security operatives seemed helpless as the IDPs refused to leave the highway. “We are not fighting but fighting for our survival. The foods are not being supplied, there is no water. No medication for our sick kids; we want food or they should send back to our villages,” said an IDP who identified herself as Aisa from Marte. “They don’t allow us to go out to beg. We are kept like prisoner without food….”, she said. No government official has addressed the protesters yet.