Ramadan: How Borno IDPs fast under intense heat
IDPs in Maiduguri undergo unimaginable difficulties while observing this year’s Ramadan fast due the most hostile weather conditions occasioned by the enduring intense heat.
The heat fluctuates mostly between 40°c and 43°c in the past two weeks.
The inmates of the IDP camps languish in the panting heat, completely at a loss where they can source the barest solace while fasting.
Most of the camps, Kanem Trust observes, lack enough tree shades where the inmates can seek refuge from the roasting heat of the tarpaulin and polythene tents and huts contrived with zinc sheets and other heat-conducting items.
Majority of camps inmates strip near naked, especially midmorning and late night in desperate effort to mitigate the effect of the heat, Kanem Trust has observed.
More than every other time, as soon as the day breaks, the male inmates struggle with each other in a rush for available spaces under the few trees and other structures that provide some shade.
“Staying in the tents in this intense heat while fasting is unbearable because the materials which the tents are made of generate and conduct,” Abubakar Hassan, an IDP at Dalori 1 Camp, complained to Kanem Trust.
He said: “Whether you are fortunate enough to brickbuilt house, or corn-stalk shelters it does not matter, and it makes no difference in the difficulty you suffer while fasting because the bare sandy ground itself generates heat; this is why as soon as day breaks we all rush out for every available shade in the camp.”
The fasting IDPs portray their most pathetic state at breakfast time.
“Even before Ramadan majority of us find it extremely difficult to get a meal daily, let alone during the fast; before breakfast time the heat incapacitates most of us to a near fainting point; in fact there are tales of many IDPs fainting while fasting because of the heat,” Adamu Lawan told Kanem Trust at NYSC camp.
Modu Usman at Madunatu IDPs camp, said virtually all IDPs flood out of their shelters at night in their families in the struggle for every available open space and, in the process, about five families get squeezed in open space available for only three.
“Most of us often wet the very hot sandy ground before spreading our mats or anything improvised beddings, perchance we will achieve some cool comfort to enable us sleep, but the sandy surface soon begins generating hot steam to ensure that we achieve no comfort,” Modu said.
“We strip near naked, drenching our body with every available quantity of water to assuage the hot condition while fasting; before afternoon your saliva is reduced to a little drop of white substance in a fast drying mouth because of dehydration; before fasting you hear many of us screaming under this condition; now that we are fasting we lack the energy to scream; we only languish in the agony fasting under intense heat in a camp system that only aggravates our difficult situation,” he said.
“Fasting women scream while preparing meals under the intense heat,” Yazara Musa at Teachers Village camp complained, saying, “most times the fasting woman nears the point of fainting while preparing meals for the husband or children.”
“There is no difference between IDPs and all other persons in terms of fasting under severe heat,” Dr. Yahaya Mohammed, a medical practitioner, said.
“As I told you for all other persons, the best way to enjoy fasting under this intense heat is to avoid any move that could dehydrate you,” Dr. Yahaya warned, stressing, “don’t work under the sun; if you must do so, do it minimally.”
He advised: “Because the heat dehydrates you in a situation where you cannot drink water, because you are fasting, break your fast with fruits such as cucumber, watermelon, pineapple etc.
“If you must eat oily foods, eat them during breaking of the fast, but not during the dawn feeding (Sahur), because oily foods dehydrate you, and if you eat them at Sahur, they will dehydrate you so fast under the intense heat.
“People suffer observing fast under heat because of prolong working under the sun, which leads to heat stroke; you know that Muslim clerics say that anyone under heat stroke can break his fast; so if you don’t want to be necessitated by heat stroke to break your fast, avoid working under the sun.