The Nigeria Air Force (NAF) has
commenced a two-week medical outreach for Internally Displaced Persons
(IDPs), in Maiduguri and Damboa Local Government Areas of Borno.
The NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Vice-Marshal Olatokunbo Adesanya, said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
He said that the outreach’s theme which is “Alleviating the Medical/Surgical Needs of IDPs in Maiduguri and Damboa”, involved surgical interventions for those with complicated and critical health challenges.
Adesanya
quoted the leader of the NAF Medical Outreach Team, Group Capt.
Azubuike Chukwuka, as saying that the programme was at the instance of
the Chief of the Air staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, to
assuage the sufferings of the IDPs.
Chukwuka
also the Director of Public Health and Humanitarian Services at NAF
Headquarters’, said the outreach was also for enhancing civil military
relations, as part of ‘winning the hearts and minds’ strategy of the
NAF.
“NAF Medical Outreach Team has
conducted a total of 71 eye surgeries and 31 general surgeries on IDPs
in Maiduguri and Damboa since the commencement of the exercise on
Feb.13.
“The medical team at Damboa had
carried out 32 eye surgeries while 10 general surgeries have been
conducted on IDPs after screening 682 of them who had various
eye-related ailments.
“In addition, the NAF Medical Outreach Team has so far provided free medical treatment to 590 IDPs at Damboa alone.
“Therefore,
a total of 1,272 IDPs have been successfully attended to in Damboa,
while more are expected to benefit from the NAF humanitarian
intervention scheme, which is still ongoing,” he said.
The spokesman said that NAF had carried out such free medical interventions in all geo-political zones of the country.
“NAF
recently conducted a free medical intervention at Enugu, Bakassi and
Makurdi. The outreach is expected to end on March 1,” he said.
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