This archive report was first published on 21 May 2020.
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe, many people found themselves stuck in unfamiliar places, separated from their loved ones. For one Kenyan woman, the experience was particularly harrowing. She had been in Nigeria since March 21, trying to find a way back home but facing numerous challenges.
With airports closed and flights grounded, she was forced to rely on online research and social media to stay informed about the situation. She spent hours scrolling through Twitter, searching for any glimmer of hope, but there was none. The situation was getting worse by the day, with COVID-19 cases rising in both Kenya and Nigeria.
On March 28, President Muhammadu Buhari announced a total lockdown to begin on March 30, with a daily four-hour window for essential shopping. The woman's hotel offered breakfast only, and she had to fend for herself for other meals. She spent her days locked up, sleeping most of the time and chatting with friends and family on WhatsApp.
As the lockdown dragged on, she began to feel the strain. She started to experience fatigue, depression, and anxiety, and her thoughts turned to the worst-case scenario. She feared getting the virus, being quarantined, and never seeing her family again. She also worried about running out of money and having to live in someone else's home.
On April 7, she found a cheaper accommodation online and moved to a new place. However, the lockdown was extended by two weeks, and she was left feeling hopeless and lonely. She began to have thoughts of bad things happening to her, and her anxiety attacks worsened.
As the days turned into weeks, she realized that there was no hope of returning to Kenya anytime soon. To make her dwindling cash stretch longer, she cut her meals from one per day to one every three days.
