ICC Note: Surviving a Boko Haram attack rarely ever represents the end of suffering for Nigerians, but merely the beginning, Millions of Nigerians displaced by the Islamist terror insurgency n ow face challenges such as homelessness and hunger, which makes the West African cold season that much more difficult. International Christian Concern (ICC) has worked to try to ease this kind off suffering, proving sweaters to displaced children in Jos, Nigeria.

By Mohammad Ibrahim

1/5/16 Kaduna, Nigeria (AllAfrica) — The temperature is dropping across northern Nigeria as the seasonal Harmattan winds blow in a haze of dust from the Sahara, blotting out the sun for days on end. It’s miserable at the best of times, worse still if you’ve been made homeless by Boko Haram violence and don’t have decent shelter.

“It has not been easy since we came to this camp 11 months ago,” said Mama Aisha, who fled Maiduguri, the main city in the northeast, and now lives 800 kilometres away in north-central Kaduna State. “We don’t have blankets to keep us warm.”

Aisha is just one of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have set up informal camps throughout the northern region, with little to no protection from the low temperatures.

For those lucky enough to have ‘proper’ shelters, the structures often still lack doors and windows. “We need blankets to cover ourselves and to protect the children from catching cold,” Aisha told IRIN.

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