The death of Bana-Losoraye has thrown the Dalori-II Internally Displaced Persons, IDP, camp in Maiduguri, into a grieving mood. Bana died and was buried last week Wednesday, after she was diagnosed of HIV, the same ailment that killed her parents.
According to PremiumTimes. Bana-Losoraye is one of the many unaccompanied displaced children that fled their communities after Boko Haram attacks.
At the end of 2014 when Boko Haram stormed her community, Bama, her family and many other villagers had to flee to a bigger commercial village called Banki. After barely a week in Banki, her father who was diagnosed of HIV died.
His condition worsened after the rigours and trauma of running through the bushes to evade the blade of blood-thirsty Boko Haram fighters. The death of her father was a heavy cloud cast upon her promising future.
“Till she passed away, Bana-Losoraye often recall the memories of her late father and how he promised to put her in school. But his ill health did not permit him doing just that,” said one of the women in the camp.
The girl and her mother and grandmother had to move from Banki to Bama General Hospital which then doubled as an IDP camp. The other siblings – her brother and some cousins – remained in Banki.
“The idea of moving to Banki was to enable Bana-Losoraye’s mother and her grandmother who were very malnourished and looked sickly to have access to medications at the hospital in Bama”, Fatima Bukar, one of the women at the Dalori camp explained.
After their arrival, they did not get the expected medication and her mother and grandmother died. It could not be ascertained if Bana-Losoraye’s mother had suffered from ill health associated with HIV.
When she came to the camp, the little girl who fell sick was tested and diagnosed to be HIV positive. No one was sure how she contracted the disease.