Child dies in shelter for ‘bakwit’

A WOMAN and her child in an evacuation center in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao province RAFFY LERMA

COTABATO CITY—Diseases in evacuation centers for residents displaced by the ongoing war by the military on renegade Moro rebels have taken their first casualty, a 4-year-old child who died due to dehydration in one of the shelters, according to health officials in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The war on members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) entered its 30th day Thursday.

Dr. Kadil Sinolinding Jr., ARMM health secretary, said the child died on Wednesday due to dehydration after suffering from severe diarrhea at Libutan Elementary School in the village of Libutan in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao province. The school had been turned into an evacuation center.

“Sad to say, one evacuee has died,” said Sinolinding, who has been monitoring conditions in the evacuation centers.

Sinolinding said at least 10,000 of more than 120,000 evacuees, locally called ‘bakwit,’ from 15 towns of Maguindanao had been disease-stricken.

He said the number of sick people is growing. Cough, fever and colds are the most common ailments in the shelters, he added.

Many evacuees, he said, are also suffering from stomachaches and hypertension “triggered by anxiety, fear and apprehension” over the ongoing war.

Sinolinding also expressed fears of an outbreak of diarrhea due to lack of safe drinking water.

“We started rationing clean water,” Sinolinding said, appealing also for donations of drinking water.

“We are doing everything to prevent an outbreak of any disease,” he said.

At least 15 health stations (one per affected town) and a small hospital have been set up in Barangay (village) Libutan, manned by Maguindanao-based health workers and volunteer nurses from Lanao del Sur province and other areas not hit by the fighting in Maguindanao.

He thanked groups of doctors and nurses who are helping deliver health care to the evacuees, mainly through medical missions in evacuation sites.

Sinolinding said special attention was also given to pregnant women in the evacuation sites.

“We are giving appropriate care and attention to women who are at risk of forced abortion and premature delivery due to the difficult situation in evacuation sites,” he said.

One of those at risk is Podzia Kamsa, 30, of the town of Talayan in Maguindanao, one of the areas in the province that had become either battlefields or evacuation sites in the war on BIFF. Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao