The fire next time: Traumatised children from Boko Haram and other conflicts

ModuGana was just eight years old when Boko Haram (BH) fighters attacked his village in the middle of the night. His father and uncle were pumped with bullets right in his presence, and their houses were set on fire. The BH fighters killed the men of the village, carted away as much food as they could carry, and took the women and children as prisoners.

His mother was repeatedly slapped and beaten for crying too loudly – as she mourned the death of her husband. Some of the BH fighters eventually distributed the women, including his mother and his two older sisters, among themselves as new wives. Anyone who protested was publicly beaten or killed. He could not make sense of it. He was consumed with anger and hatred, but knew it was only impotent rage.

ModuGana and the other boys were taken to a different camp where the older ones (14 years and above) were recruited for training as fighters; while the younger ones like himself were given chores of gathering firewood as well as washing the clothes of the fighters. He lived in this new camp for four years until they were rescued by Nigerian Forces.

He is now living in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp and has no idea what became of his mother or his sisters. He is now withdrawn, hardly speaks, but prone to outbursts of aggression with minimal provocation. ModuGana is constantly wary and jumps at any loud noise. Attempts at enrolling him in school classes have failed as he always beats up all the other children if they looked at him.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that the BH insurgency has directly or indirectly impacted on the 17.2 million people living in the north-eastern region of Nigeria. The IOM estimates that at least 3.6 million persons have been directly displaced, with children accounting for about 62 per cent.

In addition to these displaced children, we also have very high numbers of children born to women and girls who were forcefully ‘married’ by the BH insurgents. These children are stigmatised, shamed in the community and not accepted even by some of their biological mothers.

Thus, we have a tragedy on our hands, with tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of displaced children, orphans and children of BH fighters who have been exposed to massive trauma. For some of these children, psychological distress is on-going in the form of daily humiliation and stigmatisation – especially for the girls who have returned home as mothers of children, with no clarity as to the identity of their fathers.

In a conservative society like north-eastern Nigeria, this is likely going to be a source of social exclusion and stigmatisation. So, now we have a generation of young and fertile minds, who have lost their innocence and childhood; seething with hatred and anger against all and sundry – including self-loathing for acts they witnessed, were coerced to participate in, or that they were simply helpless to prevent.

What fruits would these minds produce in the next 10 to 20 years? The same analogy applies to every part of the country where we have witnessed civil strife such as Jos, and Southern Kaduna. The north-east is just the case in point, on account of the sheer scale of the insurgency.

In order to avoid the fire next time, we need to seriously invest in social re-engineering with concerted efforts to ensure effective psycho-social rehabilitation. Co-ordinated, systematic and planned efforts and investment needs to be embarked upon to help these traumatised youths overcome their identity challenges and seething anger.

They need help to move beyond anger towards compassion, understanding and societal re-integration. Unfortunately, while several non-state actors (non-governmental organisations) have raised funds from all over the world purportedly for psycho-social rehabilitation in the north-east region, only a handful, have actually been effectively engaged.

Ongoing efforts are further hampered by those who would rather line their pockets than see budgeted funds go into streams of activities to promote healing and rehabilitation. It is unconscionable that even within the IDP camps, children and women are still being traumatised and denied of their basic amenities. One would hope that the government at both state and federal levels will identify and make scapegoats of some of these heartless people.

We need to ensure that the funds voted for the reconstruction of the north-east region is judiciously utilised and that the reconstruction effort is not limited to physical rehabilitation alone. It necessarily needs to include psychosocial rehabilitation and social re-engineering with public awareness and sensitisation campaigns. Sociologists, psychologists and psychiatrists have an invaluable role to play in this regard.