The last psychiatrists remaining in the heartland of Boko Haram squeezed in a few hundred patients one recent morning. The waiting room was packed and the power was out.
The war between the Islamist insurgency and a frazzled army has left 7,000 people dead since 2011, but it has also created a backlog of anguished survivors at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital here. Inside, the nine psychiatrists usually have just minutes for each patient, and little to offer beyond a prescription for antidepressants—before the mentally ill walk back out to rejoin what has become an ever-expanding and twisted conflict.
Some 52,000 patients have active files here, the hospital says—a case load that has doubled since Boko Haram launched its campaign of killing and kidnapping.
They include a 6-year-old girl who saw Boko Haram murder her parents, her file says, and now frequently interrupts her class by shouting: "They're here!"
Boko Haram has burned down villages, shot rockets into homes, and beheaded drivers on highways in its campaign to impose Islamic law. It has forced both boys and girls into its ranks—and the recent abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls brought the group global attention.
Nigeria's army, meanwhile, has routinely rounded up young men on slight provocation, shooting them in the streets, said human-rights groups and Western diplomats. The army denies the charges.
For all involved, the psychological toll is clear...
The war between the Islamist insurgency and a frazzled army has left 7,000 people dead since 2011, but it has also created a backlog of anguished survivors at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital here. Inside, the nine psychiatrists usually have just minutes for each patient, and little to offer beyond a prescription for antidepressants—before the mentally ill walk back out to rejoin what has become an ever-expanding and twisted conflict.
Some 52,000 patients have active files here, the hospital says—a case load that has doubled since Boko Haram launched its campaign of killing and kidnapping.
They include a 6-year-old girl who saw Boko Haram murder her parents, her file says, and now frequently interrupts her class by shouting: "They're here!"
Boko Haram has burned down villages, shot rockets into homes, and beheaded drivers on highways in its campaign to impose Islamic law. It has forced both boys and girls into its ranks—and the recent abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls brought the group global attention.
Nigeria's army, meanwhile, has routinely rounded up young men on slight provocation, shooting them in the streets, said human-rights groups and Western diplomats. The army denies the charges.
For all involved, the psychological toll is clear...
Source: Hindi News
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