Maiduguri's IDP camps hide a brutal reality that morning traffic and commerce cannot mask. Teenage girls trade sex for food in a desperate bid to survive.
Survival sex emerges when extreme hunger and conflict strip away every other option. Young girls in these camps now engage in sexual activity to feed themselves and their families.
At EYN camp in Jerusalem, Maiduguri's outskirts, makeshift shelters stand as both refuge and prison. Zinc sheets and thatched roofs house families who've lost everything to Boko Haram attacks in Gwoza.
These flimsy structures mean safety compared to their villages back home. Sleeping here feels better than closing one eye at night in communities where insurgents still strike.
Yet camps offer little protection beyond walls that barely keep out wind and rain. Predators roam freely, targeting vulnerable girls abandoned by circumstance and poverty.
Parents carry invisible wounds from displacement. Fathers have grown silent, mothers battle depression and high blood pressure as they watch their children suffer.
Summer heat makes conditions unbearable for the young and elderly alike. Dust-laden winds test survival skills that grow weaker each passing season.
John Gwoma chairs the camp's leadership committee from Ngoshe. He fled insurgent violence fourteen years ago and hasn't left since.
"We've lived in these temporary shanties for all these years," Gwoma told our reporters. "Life here is a daily struggle, nothing more."
According to him, fragile structures offer minimal protection during rains and extreme cold. Families endure hunger while battling weather that shows no mercy.
Beyond the obvious hardships, another crisis now keeps camp leaders awake at night. Teenage pregnancies have become routine, with underage girls joining older teens in this grim statistic.
Unsafe abortions follow unwanted pregnancies at alarming rates. The camp chairman expressed deep concern about the health risks these girls face.
The turning point came when international agencies withdrew food assistance. UN organizations and donor groups pulled back their support, leaving families desperate.
That withdrawal opened doors for predators from surrounding towns. Men began targeting camp girls, knowing hunger would force compliance.
What started as a humanitarian response transformed into a catastrophe. Aid withdrawal didn't solve problems—it weaponized poverty against children.
Camp officials now struggle with consequences they cannot manage alone. Resources remain scarce while needs multiply faster than help arrives.
Girls in these camps didn't choose displacement or poverty. Yet they've become casualties in a crisis that extends far beyond conflict zones into systems that abandoned them.
