How the Closure of a Clinic Affects Healthcare in Benue IDP Camp

In April 2026, Anaor Saawuan laid her eight-month-old granddaughter on a thin mattress inside their makeshift shelter at the Anyiin Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Logo Local Government Area of Benue State, Central Nigeria.

The baby had been vomiting and stooling for two days. She also had a fever. Grandma thought it was a teething problem, so she gave her a cough syrup and tablets bought at a nearby patent medicine shop.

But when the vomiting and diarrhoea returned, she took the child to a hospital outside the camp. Health workers said she needed a blood transfusion.

“I had no money,” she said. “And there was nobody to help me.”

She turned to traditional remedies. But at about 9 p.m. on 2 May, the child died. She believes the child might have survived if the nearby clinic in the camp had still been open.

“There used to be a clinic here,” Mrs Saawuan said, pointing towards a building inside the camp. “Medicines were available, and treatment was free, until everything stopped.”

Her experience shows the healthcare crisis in camps for people displaced by conflicts in Benue State. Clinics are closed or poorly equipped. Medicines are scarce, referral systems are weak, and many families cannot afford healthcare costs.

Another health burden

Mrs Saawuan also has a young grandson. He was diagnosed with an inguinal hernia and referred for surgery at a general hospital. “We barely feed,” she said. “How can I pay for an operation?”

Mrs Saawuan has turned to herbs to manage his condition.

Anaor Saawuan and her grandson. Pic: Manasseh Mbachii/PREMIUM TIMES

A risky pregnancy

A few shelters away in the same camp lives a pregnant 32-year-old woman, Naomi Teryen.

Her previous pregnancies were difficult, involving prolonged labour and Caesarean sections.

But five months into her current pregnancy, she has little money for regular antenatal care at a health centre outside the camp and has not had an ultrasound scan.

“I don’t have a job, and there is no proper healthcare service in this camp,” she told PREMIUM TIMES.

Mrs Teryen said she previously relied on the health facility in the camp.

“When the hospital was available, we used to get medicine free of charge there,” she said. “But now that the hospital has been closed, when we go to the health centre, we pay for medicine.”

Cost of a closed clinic

Mrs Teryen showed PREMIUM TIMES the medicines she received during an antenatal visit. They included paracetamol and Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS), which contain vitamins and minerals meant to prevent deficiencies and improve maternal and birth outcomes.

The MMS supplements are distributed through Nigeria’s public health system with help from the government and partners like UNICEF.

They are supposed to be given out free. But Mrs Teryen claimed pregnant women from the camp are charged for medicines, including MMS, during antenatal visits to the health centre outside the camp.

She said an antenatal visit to the European Economic Community Health Clinic in Anyiin, a government-owned primary healthcare facility, usually costs her about ₦3,000. Once, she arrived with only ₦1,000. “They told me to go back,” she said.

The Anyiin IDP camp in Benue State. PC: Manasseh Mbachii/PREMIUM TIMES

Mrs Teryen’s husband makes wooden crafts inside the camp. But he often sells nothing.

“Every time she gives birth, it is difficult. Sometimes we spend more than a week in the hospital,” he said.

Terrence Akighir, a medical doctor and UNICEF consultant, told PREMIUM TIMES the supplements should not be sold to patients.

“MMS is supposed to be free,” he said. “If somebody is taking advantage of that to sell the medicine, it should be looked into and stopped. These women do not have money. If they are paying for medicines that should be free, how will they meet their other healthcare needs?”

A UNICEF humanitarian report backs Mr Akighir’s claims amid the crisis.

In its Humanitarian Situation Report No. 3, published on 18 March 2026, the agency said that 8.8 million people, including 4.9 million children, needed humanitarian assistance, while 2.9 million people were internally displaced.

UNICEF reported that, under its First 1,000 Days Initiative, 489 pregnant women in Benue IDPs received free MMS between June and December 2025.

Clinic declines comment

PREMIUM TIMES contacted the European Economic Community Health Clinic in Anyiin for a response to the allegation. An official on duty said she was not allowed to comment on whether MMS were being sold to patients and refused to provide more information before walking away.

UNICEF’s 2025 humanitarian response and support for pregnant women in Benue

When the clinic closed

The healthcare crisis at the Anyiin IDP camp did not just start this year. It followed the closure of a health facility inside the camp that once provided basic medical care to displaced people.

Helen Tsavwua, a former worker at the facility, said the clinic was set up by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which provided medical services to displaced communities in Anyiin IDP during the height of the crisis in 2018.

“When MSF was leaving, Victim Support Fund (VSF) took over until January 2021,” she said. “When they left, the hospital was closed down.”

Ms Tsavwua said VSF continued to give out some medicines, but without medical staff, residents could not reliably get treatment.

“They were giving medicines, but there was no doctor to attend to patients,” she said. “When children or women were sick, they would go there, but there was nobody to give them medicine.”

She said the limited treatment available was also inadequate for many patients.

“Sometimes only malaria medicine or paracetamol would be given without even testing,” she said.

A community health worker at the Community Health Clinic, Anyiin, who previously worked at the camp facility, said the closure was due to lack of funds. The worker asked not to be named due to fear of possible victimisation.

According to the health worker, MSF had provided significant support to the facility, including medical personnel. Some doctors and other health workers who had worked under the organisation were retained when its support ended, but keeping the facility running became harder.

“When MSF left, it became difficult to sustain the hospital,” the worker said. “Medicine stopped coming in, and we were asked to return to our former posts.”

The worker said the camp’s health services relied heavily on support from NGOs and other groups.

“Most of the activities in the camp, especially health and food, were supported by NGOs,” the worker said. “The government’s role through the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) was mostly supervisory.”

An abandoned clinic

PREMIUM TIMES visited the former clinic located within the NKST Primary School, Anyiin, where internally displaced people still live. The facility looked deserted, with its rooms locked and no health workers or patients present. Its beige-and-black walls were chipped and peeling, while faded chalk writings remained on the dark metal doors. The concrete walkway was cracked and stained, bordered by bare reddish soil, while children moved through the surrounding school grounds.

The abandoned makeshift clinic at NKST Primary School, Anyiin, now a hollow shell covered in dust and peeling paint. Pic: Manasseh Mbachii/PREMIUM TIMES

Camp residents said medicines supplied by non-profit organisations were still inside the locked facility. They said the drugs remained out of reach because the building was closed and no health workers were available to help patients.

MSF exits Benue

PREMIUM TIMES contacted Abdulkareem Yakubu, field communication officer and spokesperson for MSF in Nigeria, for clarification on the organisation’s withdrawal and its impact on communities previously served by its teams.

Mr Yakubu said he could not comment on the current situation in communities where MSF had ended its activities. He referred PREMIUM TIMES to MSF’s formal statement on the closure, which he shared, saying it contained the organisation’s position on its decision to leave the state.

In the statement, MSF said it had decided to phase out its medical humanitarian activities in Benue after six years of providing healthcare to internally displaced people and host communities. The organisation said basic healthcare and decentralised activities would end by the end of June 2024, while family planning and sexual and reproductive healthcare activities would stop by the end of July, and comprehensive sexual and gender-based violence care would conclude in August the same year.

“MSF operations’ core mission is to provide urgent medical humanitarian assistance in emergency contexts, and we have a responsibility to ensure this capacity to provide assistance at a moment’s notice is maintained,” the statement said.

The organisation said the decision was made after considering medical needs across Nigeria and the need to strengthen MSF’s response in other parts of the country.

“We remain concerned for the safety of women and girls in Benue,” the statement read. “We will continue to advocate for more action by the Nigerian government and the newly arrived international organisations present in the area, to recognise the threat that SGBV poses to displaced people and to provide survivors with the necessary care.”

MSF reported that between May 2018 and March 2024, its medical teams conducted 412,832 consultations and treated 223,871 patients in Mbawa, Ortese, Naka and Agagbe camps and host communities. The organisation also said it admitted 1,731 people following instances of sexual and gender-based violence in 2023.

“The arrival of international organisations is a hopeful signal that MSF’s drive to recognise the plight of displaced people in Benue state is being heard,” the statement added.

According to MSF, a new clinic supported by UNICEF and WHO began operating in three camps in late 2023. The organisation said this development offered some hope of continued healthcare support for displaced communities after its withdrawal.

After MSF’s exit

At the Anyiin IDP camp, the effects of MSF’s departure are still felt by displaced residents. Julius Tema, chairman of the Anyiin IDP camp, said the withdrawal of the organisation and the closure of the camp’s health facility have left residents struggling to get basic healthcare.

“Our biggest challenges now are food and health,” he said. “There are many sick people in this camp.”

He mentioned that malaria remains widespread, along with cases of hepatitis and other illnesses.

“There was a hospital here before,” Mr Tema said. “Today, that hospital is no longer functioning. We don’t have medicines anymore.”

Without a working clinic, residents must seek treatment outside the camp, which many cannot afford.

“When there is no medicine and no hospital inside the camp, people suffer,” he said. “Some simply resort to herbs because they don’t have money to seek treatment elsewhere.”

Mr Tema said pregnant women, children, and older residents were particularly affected. He appealed to the government and humanitarian organisations to restore healthcare services.

“We need medicines. We need medical personnel. We need intervention before more lives are lost,” he said.

Officials stay silent

The agencies responsible for managing the IDP camps and providing healthcare to Benue residents did not respond to PREMIUM TIMES’ requests for comments on this investigation.

During a call on 7 July, James Iorpuu, executive secretary of the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), which oversees IDP camps, scheduled a meeting at the agency’s headquarters in Makurdi for 9 a.m. the next day.

The reporter arrived before the scheduled time and waited for over three hours. But when Mr Iorpuu emerged from his office, he ignored the reporter and drove away without granting the interview or suggesting another time.

PREMIUM TIMES later sent questions to SEMA about the closure of the health facility in the IDP camp, the shortage of medicines, healthcare costs borne by displaced residents, emergency referral arrangements, and support for health workers in the camps.

As of this publication, the agency has not responded.

James Iorpuu, Executive Secretary of the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA). PC: Sir-James Aondoakaa Iorpuu/Facebook

The Benue State Commissioner for Health, Paul Ogwuche, also did not respond to repeated requests for comment. During a visit to the ministry at the Benue State Secretariat, Mr Ogwuche’s secretary requested a formal written interview request, which was submitted.

As of this publication, the commissioner had not responded to the questions.

A wider health crisis

The experiences documented in Anyiin are happening amid a prolonged conflict that has forced hundreds of thousands from their homes across Benue State.

The International Organisation for Migration’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) Round 18 recorded 464,543 internally displaced persons in Benue, the highest number across the North-central and North-west states covered by the assessment.

About 376,000, or 81 percent, lived in host communities, while roughly 88,000 were in camps and camp-like settings.

Displaced in Benue: 464,543 people forced from their homes, with 81 percent living in host communities

Women and children make up most of the displaced population, increasing the need for maternal, reproductive, and child healthcare in the camps.

For many families, displacement has also meant losing farms, businesses, and other sources of income.

An August 2025 assessment by SEMA and the Internal Displacement Solutions Fund found that 96 percent of displaced households surveyed wanted to go back to their communities.

The healthcare challenges are especially serious for pregnant women.

A study published in the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central (PMC) found a maternal mortality ratio of 1,189 deaths per 100,000 live births among pregnant women visiting PHCs in Benue State.

The study looked at data from two groups covering 2015, 2017 and 2020, 2021. The reported ratio is more than double Nigeria’s national estimate and far above the Sustainable Development Goal target of fewer than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.

Preventable illnesses, delayed care

Mr Akighir, the medical doctor and UNICEF consultant, said many illnesses affecting displaced families can be prevented or treated if care is available early.

He pointed out malnutrition, malaria, and acute diarrheal diseases as major health concerns, especially among children.

“Malnutrition is one of the biggest problems we see,” he said. “When children are malnourished, their immunity drops, and they become vulnerable to infections.”

He noted that poor access to safe water and sanitation can worsen those risks.

“Once they start drinking untreated water, acute diarrhoeal diseases become common,” he said. “Many children also walk barefoot, exposing them to hookworm infestation, skin infections and other preventable diseases.”

Pregnant women face more risks when poverty and displacement delay their access to care.

“Health-seeking behaviour is generally poor,” Mr Akighir said. “Sometimes labour begins, and the woman delivers inside the camp because there is nobody to take her to a health facility. Others come very late, when complications have already developed.”

He said weaknesses in the referral system can create further barriers, especially for displaced people who were not registered when they arrived at the camps.

“Some of them came into the camps after registration had been completed,” he said.

“When complications arise, and they are referred, they may face challenges accessing support because they are not captured in the system.”

Support, but gaps remain

Mr Akighir said humanitarian organisations continue to support maternal and child healthcare in some of Benue’s IDP camps. This includes antenatal care, nutrition services, treatment for childhood illnesses, and referrals for emergency care.

He said one intervention had supported over 250 successful deliveries.

Still, these efforts have not filled all the gaps in access to healthcare across the camps.

UNICEF’s 2025 humanitarian report shows that its health response extended beyond nutrition support. By the end of the year, the agency said essential health services reached displaced people in 10 IDP camps and two host communities in Benue, with over 44,000 medical consultations and 16,000 childhood immunisations recorded.

The agency identified gaps that continue to limit the response, including limited government funding, shortages of essential supplies, and weak coordination among government agencies.

For Mrs Teryen, whose baby is due in September, those gaps have immediate consequences.