A medical team supported by UNICEF, Red Cross, UN in company of Nigerian medical personnel, led by the Commissioner of Health, Plateau State, Dr Cletus Shurkur Bako and Professor Christopher Yilgwan paid an assessment visit to Bokkos LGC, one of the LGCs affected by the Christmas eve attack on the Plateau.
The Commissioner of Health, said the medical team had the primary task of carrying on with initial assessment of medical needs, disclosing that the team had some medical consumables for those that needed them.
He explained that that would be a continuous process depending on the assessment. Explaining further, he said that the team had a lot of experts in various fields of health who would be attending to the people based on their needs.
He said the team was being supported by partners from the W.H.O, UNICEF, Red Cross, NEMA, National Development Primary Board, and Doctors Without Borders, among others. He pointed out that all of them were working together to ensure that all medical needs of those in camp, hospitals and outside were totally attended to.
Dr. Shurkuk said the government appreciated all the contributions made by the camp manager, local government, alongside the partners.
He also said the team was willing to provide support for the three local government areas, which include Bokkos, Mangu and Barkin-Ladi, affected in terms of medications and that it would utilize other personnel of the medical team in the camp for easy assessment.
Speaking earlier was the CMD, Plateau State Specialist Hospital, Prof. Christopher Yilgwan, who explained the mission of the team which is to care for those who needed medical observation. He stated that the medical team includes mental specialists who can assist where necessary.
Prof. Yilgwan said there were also experts on child health, women, pregnant women and that anyone who was on medication and needed assistance, should avail themselves.
The CMD said the team came with some drugs for diabetics, multi-vitamins, among many.
He explained that this was the team’s first visit and that what it was doing was to help the team to evaluate the potential needs of the people.
According to him, the team was also setting up mobile clinics in all the camps to help attend to the needs of the people and possibly, the host communities, because the available health resources around would be stretched.
He assured them that the team was also trying to allay the fears of the victims who might feel abandoned.
Also speaking was Dr Mie Okamura, the Clusters Lead for Emergency W.H.O, who said that because of the situation, they were requested to represent the U.N system and not only W.H.O, in order to support the coordination for humanitarian response and also the health sector.
She explained that they were saddled with two responsibilities which include supporting the whole U.N system in terms of coordination and for the humanitarian crises as well as the health sector. She added that they were doing different assessments while others were supporting the different assessments based on the clusters.
Dr. Mie said the partners were working on different assessments which made the work multi-clustered in order to collect the key information and needs in order to attend to the suffering population.
She explained that despite the fact that they were different partners, agencies, they were all working together to support the government to assist the population in need. And pointed out that the most important thing was to look at what was critical, what was most urgent and organize some things like building back better in terms of the state resilience, like building the health system to be strong enough, resilient enough to continue the care of the population in Plateau.
On the other hand, the Executive Secretary, Plateau State Emergency Management Agency, Hon. Sunday Abdu, appreciated the support from NEMA , alongside the partners who were supporting the humanitarian emergency operations.
The Zonal Director of NEMA, Mr. Eugene Nyelong said they received the distress call from the government on the incident that happened on the 24th of December, and were directed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to undertake an immediate assessment of the affected areas.
According to him, the incident data collection in line with the Red Cross, revealed that thirty two thousand people were affected in three communities.
He explained that they bought food items and non food items for onward distribution based on the structure in various centers.
He appreciated the Executive Secretary of SEMA, and thereafter declared open the emergency operations center which he said was well coordinated by the key stakeholders on board.
The chairman, Bokkos LGA, Hon. Monday Kassa, alongside the camp manager, Mr. Ayuba Matawal, the Chief Medical Director, Alheri Nursing Home, Dung John, said they were devastated when the incident occurred but appreciated the vice president, ministers, W.H.O, UNICEF, Red Cross, NEMA, SEMA among others for the support they received and prayed for normalcy to return.
