Nigeria - IOM has built mental health resource centres in nine locations across northeastern Nigeria to assist and support thousands of people who have fled the Boko Haram insurgency, and the local communities who are hosting them.

The centres are part of IOM’s Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) project, which was launched in Nigeria in May 2014, following the abduction of nearly 300 girls from a school in Chibok, Borno State.

Supported by the French and German governments, the MHPSS project has reached more than 100,000 people with counseling, group support, recreational activities, informal education for adults, conflict mediation, and job opportunities since 2014. The project also addresses sexual and gender-based violence, and other protection challenges that internally displaced persons (IDPs) face in camps.

“Many people who fled their homes to escape Boko Haram, or who were abducted by the group, experience a lot of psychosocial distress, including depression and anxiety,” explained project manager Pauline Birot.

“The resource centres are important because they provide a space where people can share their experiences, learn coping mechanisms to manage trauma, find support networks within their community, and access specialized services for pre-existing conditions often left untreated during the conflict, like schizophrenia,” she added.

Primarily located in five displacement camps in Maiduguri, the centers were also built in camps in Benisheik to the west of the Borno State capital, and in Bama, Banki, and Gwoza near the border with Cameroon. These areas were hardest hit by Boko Haram. The state hosts 1.4 million IDPs – the largest IDP population in the northeast.

More than two million are displaced across the region, according to IOM’s latest Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), published in December 2016.

“Knowing the West African context, these kinds of conditions [displacement and conflict], exacerbate domestic violence,” said UN Nigeria Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Edward Kallon, during his visit to one of the new mental health centres at Muna Garage Camp in Maiduguri.

“Many men have lost their jobs because of the conflict and feel they can no longer provide for their families.  These are some of the stresses present in camps and in this context that make mental health and livelihood interventions so important,” he said.

Muna Garage camp hosts more than 18,400 internally displaced Nigerians, including 120 families who live in shelters provided by IOM.

IOM MHPSS mobile teams will operate from the centres and will continue to serve displaced people and communities affected by conflict in 20 other locations across northeastern Nigeria.

For more information, please contact Julia Burpee at IOM Nigeria, Tel. +234 (0) 907 373 1170, Email: jburpee@iom.int