Nigeria: IDPs protest over food shortage

Thousands of internally displaced Nigerians took to the streets of Maiduguri in the northeast of the country on Thursday to denounce the lack of food and medicine in their camps.

Nearly 4,000 people, all of whom fled their homes to escape the Boko Haram insurgency and settled in the Gubio camp, blocked the highway that crosses the city.

They accuse camp officials of diverting food aid given to the 33,000 internally displaced people.

Funding problems have pushed international organizations to reduce their operations, exacerbating the humanitarian situation in a region where more than 5 million people are threatened by famine.

Faced with this critical situation, thousands of people have chosen to return to their lands to cultivate them, exposing themselves once again to Boko Haram attacks who murder or abduct farmers, accusing them of spying for the military.