Red Cross prepares to train Nigerian war surgeons as crisis deepens

The International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, in its bid to reduce civilian casualties in one of the longest-running conflicts in Nigeria, has announced a training to prepare the next generation of Nigerian war surgeons.

Due to the fighting in northeastern Nigeria, particularly in Maiduguri, during the past ten years as a result of the presence of Boko Haram and other terror groups, medical personnel have become critically needed for humanitarian situations.

But with the ICRC present, the organisation has been providing medical care to patients injured in the state specialist hospital since 2015 a high in civilian casualties and displacement during the fighting was addressed.

Yet the ICRC has maintained that “At least eight million people need humanitarian assistance across Nigeria. More than two million have had to flee their homes” due to the impact of conflict in the region.

The number of those registered by the Red Cross Movement as missing due to conflict – 23,000 – is the highest in Africa. Millions live amid food insecurity, while hundreds of thousands of children are acutely malnourished, says ICRC.

Meanwhile, ICRC’s call for war surgeons surged following the global remembrance of the over 200 ‘Chibok girls‘ abducted in April 2014.

Despite working to mitigate the rising humanitarian crises in the region since 2015, the global health organisation is looking to hand the ward back to the hospital, which means training more than the 16 surgeons and anesthesiologists it had already trained.

According to ICRC, “material support for the ward is planned to continue, more and more, in a gradual process that will span the next year. Its day-to-day management will be run by the Nigerian staff of the specialist hospital,” the statement reads.

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Mayowa Durosinmi

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M. Durosinmi is a West Africa Weekly investigative reporter covering Politics, Human Rights, Health, and Security in West Africa and the Sahel Region

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