VSF provides extra N20 million for treatment of terror victims in Borno hospitals

The Victims Support Fund on Sunday said it has provided additional N20 million to two main hospitals in Maiduguri, Borno State, to continue the free treatment of patients affected by Boko Haram violence.

The N20 million donation was a second phase of such intervention being received by University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) and the Borno State Specialist Hospital where most of the victims of the Boko Haram attacks are being treated.

Each of the two healthcare facilities got additional N10 million each.

In 2015, the VSF made a donation of N20 million each to the two hospitals to enable them provide free medical care to injured victims of the on-going insurgency.

The foundation said it has also provided an accountability-spread sheet to the benefitting hospitals to ensure that the funds were transparently and judiciously expended on the victims.

The executive secretary of VSF, Sunday Ochoche, made the announcement for yet another N10 million when he visited the hospital to sympathise with victims of last week’s attack on Maiduguri by Boko Haram.

He said the N10 million was being released after another Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with authorities of the hospitals; adding that due to the pressure at the UMTH, the hospital got its additional N10 million earlier in January this year.

“So far we have given the UMTH N30 million.

“But with the recent happening especially the multiple bomb blasts we are going to consider how much additional fund to be added,” he said.

“For the Specialists Hospital, we have given N20 million and we just gave them additional N10 million today”.

He said the VSF’s scope had expanded due to the evolving challenges in humanitarian crisis associated to the Boko Haram insurgency.

“It is now for the general medical treatment of all IDPs, we have already amended our Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the hospitals to that effect,” Mr. Ochoche said.

Earlier the Chief Medical Director of UMTH, Abdurrahman Tahir, said the hospital had since 2015, to date, provided medical treatment for about 1,200 patients brought to the hospital as injured victims of the Boko Haram conflict.

He said out of the number, about 300 were IDPs with other cases of health challenge.

“We have treated many victims of insurgency, including tens of hundreds of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from various camps in Maiduguri metropolis and other council areas of Borno state.”

“We have no problem of accessing the donated funds by VSF for the treatment of Boko Haram victims. We are utilizing the money judiciously since 2015. We have received a total sum of N30 million.”

Speaking in the same vein at the Specialist Hospital, the Managing Director appreciated the support being received by her hospital from the VSF.

“We have treated many victims of insurgency, including tens of hundreds of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from various camps in Maiduguri metropolis and other council areas of Borno State.”

She lamented that the procured drugs and consumables have been exhausted, as four hospitals in Maiduguri benefited from the distribution of VSF drugs in treating victims.