Gabon Camp In Emene, Enugu Pregnant Women Are Taken To Hospital With Wheelbarrow
Enugu East Local Government Area, life is
brutish, hard and unforgiving. Their daily
existence typifies the Hobbesian state of nature,
where life is savagely cruel with daily struggle
for survival as a permanent feature.
It may sound strange that there is a Gabon camp
in Enugu, Nigeria but it has nothing to do with
the Republic of Gabon, a sovereign state on the
west coast of Central Africa, bordering Equatorial
Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north,
the Republic of the Congo to the east and south,
and the Gulf of Guinea to the west.
The Gabon camp in Enugu is a settlement with
no access road, health facility, either owned by
government or private, no potable water, school
or electricity. The community, located behind
Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, has 120
family compounds with an estimated population
of 5,000. It is dominated by people mainly from
Ezza clan in Ebonyi State.
To access the settlement, a first-time visitor
would need to cross the rail line towards the
bank of Ekulu River, and walk for over 2km.
Sadly, the community is cut off from the rest of
the state, due to lack of access road. Visiting
the community is a nightmare as it is only
accessible through a track road by the bank of
Ekulu River by foot or motorcycle, popularly
known as ‘Okada’.
There have been reports that people often drown
whenever the river overflows its bank. As the
rainy season is here, residents of the community
are becoming apprehensive about what might
become their lot for the duration of the rainy
season.
In the community, expectant mothers go through
hell due to lack of access to medical care.
Children trek for hours in the scorching sun to
attend school. The hardship being faced by the
people is akin to hell on earth due to the
absence of basic infrastructure and social
amenities. The people live like refugees in their
fatherland with no sign of concern by
government.
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