Paper short abstract:

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has caused varying degrees of crises among populations across the world. An evaluation of the effect on vulnerable populations is important. This paper found that evaluating the pandemic effect on IDPs in Borno State, Nigeria, is limited by the pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

There is no gainsaying the fact that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had adverse effects on the health and socio-economic lives of people the world over. These effect could be disproportionately felt by vulnerable populations of which conflict induced internally displaced persons (IDPs) are part. While attention is often being focused on the evaluation of the effect of the pandemic on other populations, vulnerable populations like the IDPs are often neglected. This paper fills this gap by attempting to evaluate the state of these IDPs in the face of the pandemic, coupled with the restrictions occasioned by the pandemic. The article adopts an exploratory research design and the qualitative method, using primary data sourced from semi-structured interviews, and analyses the data using discourse analysis. Findings show that given the living conditions in the IDP camps, social/physical distancing is difficult to practice; that special measures are being put in place to protect IDPs from contracting the virus; that the lockdown occasioned by Covid-19 has adverse impact on the welfare of IDPs; and that the pandemic has brought new health and safety challenges in the IDP camps, but not security challenges. Albeit, these evaluations could not be done in-person, given the restrictions of COVID-19. The article concludes that this evaluation was limited by travel restrictions to the IDP camps, hence, the pandemic constituted a challenge to this evaluation.