Grupo terrorista Boko Haram provoca crisis hospitalaria en Nigeria

[G.O.G]

The threat of attacks by the extremist group also maintains a third of the medical facilities of that region without functioning because of security problems
The Boko Haram terrorist group has destroyed one-third of 740 hospitals in the northeastern state of Borno in Nigeria, while others are closed and the lives of thousands are threatening, according to the World Health Organization.

The threat of attacks by the extremist group also maintains a third of the medical facilities in that region without functioning because of security problems, the agency's director of emergency in Nigeria, Jorge Castilla, told a press conference.

"60 percent of the sanitation equipment lacks access to drinking water, while three out of four hospitals do not have enough chlorine reserves to purify water," the WHO official added.

"This situation is very severe and there are many needs and few facilities to alleviate it, especially in the regions of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, where there are already six million people who require vital assistance," said Castilla.

According to the manager, the situation is particularly worrisome because some northeastern areas have a mortality rate four times higher than the highest emergency threshold, and a malnutrition rate between three and ten times higher than the same indicator.

An average of 4.13 daily deaths per 10 thousand inhabitants is detected in certain areas of the north, a statistic that assumes special importance if one considers that the WHO considers emergency any situation in which one of every 10,000 people per day dies .

At least one million people are trapped in unsafe areas and are unable to receive humanitarian aid, which prevents access to health facilities and control the spread of diseases such as diarrhea, malaria or tuberculosis, which cause most of the deaths, Estimates the WHO.

WHO experts estimate that these outbreaks are just 'the tip of the iceberg' of what could be an expansion of this infectious disease that particularly affects the children of northern Nigeria.

Despite this, the WHO Director of Emergency in the African country recognized a certain decrease in mortality from previous levels, when humanitarian organizations lacked access to the northeast of the national territory, but it is impossible to have figures to confirm this.

Boko Haram, whose classification as a terrorist group is endorsed by the international community, has been struggling since 2009 to impose an Islamic state governed by the Sharia law.