Misery indeed loves company in at least one refugee camp in Nigeria where thousands of people are being ravaged by diseases such as diarrhoea while starving to death.
For these people, there is little consolation even though they have managed to escape the Islamic terror group Boko Haram, according to Medical charity MSF, which described the situation as a "catastrophic humanitarian emergency."
"This is the first time MSF has been able to access [the town of] Bama, but we already know the needs of the people there are beyond critical," said Ghada Hatim, MSF head of mission in Nigeria. "We are treating malnourished children in medical facilities in Maiduguri and see the trauma on the faces of our patients who have witnessed and survived many horrors."
More than 1,200 graves have already been dug for those who died. Since May 23, Hatim said as many as 188 people have died in the camp, mainly due to malnutrition and diseases.
"We have been told that people there, including children, have starved to death. According to the accounts given to MSF by displaced people in Bama, new graves are appearing on a daily basis. We were told on certain days more than 30 people were dying due to hunger and illness," he added.
Nearly 20,000 people have died in Nigeria since 2009 as a result of the ongoing war against the Boko Haram, the terror group targeting Christians and other people they regard as their enemies, according to the BBC.
The armies of four west African nations—Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger—are fighting to crush the Islamist militants.
But even though the Boko Haram has suffered military defeats, it continues to be a thorn in the side of many African nations as the conflict has created a major refugee crisis, with close to 2 million people displaced since fighting started.
Some 24,000 refugees are forced to seek shelter at the Bama camp amid malnutrition and disease.
MSF said based from its latest count, 1,233 cemetery graves have been dug up near the refugee camp since last year, with 480 of those belonging to children.
Children are the worst-hit in the humanitarian crisis. Aside from suffering starvation and disease, more young refugees are being used by the Boko Haram as child suicide bombers, according to international children's relief organisation UNICEF. In its April report, the U.N. agency said there has been a 10-fold increase in the number of child suicide bombers used by Boko Haram. It said t one in five suicide bombings is now carried out by a child.
"Deceiving children and forcing them to carry out deadly acts has been one of the most horrific aspects of the violence in Nigeria and in neighbouring countries," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF regional director for West and Central Africa.
"Let us be clear: these children are victims, not perpetrators," he added.
