Inside Benue IDP camps where death lurks in the shadow

JOHNSON BABAJIDE, who visited the five internally displaced camps in Agagbe, Gwer West Local Government Area of Benue State, reports on the pathetic living conditions of these
natives who have been turned into refugees in their own land.

Thousands of Benue State natives and non-natives, who were sacked by herdsmen that attacked their respective communities over the years, now live as refugees in designated camps across the state. The terrible conditions under which they live and the perceived abandonment by the government would make any any visitor to these camps weep. Living in such internally displaced persons (IDP) camps is nothing but a death wish.

For many years now, reports of herdsmen attacking communities in Benue State have become a theme song, with its hollow and chilling tragic notes. While some of these attacks were unprovoked, others were set in reprisal to establish authority over disputed farmlands and grazing routes.

Those who survive to tell the tales of such attacks are not only displaced, they also bear the physical scar they carry as insignias of such attacks. Degree of some of these injuries are worse such that it renders them incapacitated. Apart from the official figures of fatality being reeled off, no one could say in particular how many people have lost their lives in the attacks.

Mbapa Mbaiem is one of the victims of the attacks.

Since she was sacked from her community about three years ago, 50-year-old Mbaiem has been living inside one of the IDP camps at Agbagbe, Gwer West Local Government Area of the state, with her husband and five children. They can’t go back home because of the herdsmen who attacked them ensured that there was nothing for them to return to.

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At the camp located inside RCM Primary School, Agbagbe, Mbaiem and other displaced persons live in penury, crammed inside a classroom. Life is no longer as it was before the 2021 herdsmen attack sacked her and her family from their community. Though a couple of her younger children still attend classes, others have turned into farming to fend for themselves.

Narrating her ordeal, Mbaiem said: “I have been living in this camp at RCM Primary School since 2021 with my five children and husband after herdsmen invaded our village and sent everyone packing.

“The whole community has been destroyed and we have been living peacefully in this camp because of the presence of soldiers in Agagbe.”

Though not comfortable with the living conditions at the camp, Mbaiem is only thanking God for the opportunity to be alive.

“There is no happiness here. We only have to accept our condition as long as we are still alive; many of our people were killed. We were only lucky to be alive.

“There is no place like home. In this camp, we are about 60 in a classroom. We are vulnerable to mosquitoes and other diseases, but thank God we are still breathing,” she narrated while speaking on the living conditions and hardship experienced by the displaced persons at the camp.

Madam Mbaiem’s only prayer is for the government to return them back to their ancestral homes, saying “I want the government to secure our land so that we can return to our homes.”

Another displaced person at the RCM Primary School is 40-year-old widow, Nguavese. Just like Mbaiem, she was sacked from her village in Sengev council ward by herdsmen.

Following the death of Buba, her husband, Nguavese has been taking care of their three children alone.

Aondona is 15 while Eucharia and Naome are 13 and eight-year-old respectively. They have all been managing to survive on the little proceeds from her farm.

The herdsmen attack on her Tse-Agagbe village rendered the family helpless. At RCM Primary School where they live now, they can only depend on the little they came in addition to aid provided by the government and other well-meaning people.

Speaking to Sunday Tribune, on the experience the IDPs who have no access to good health care, Nguavese described their situations as very bad:

“My daughter, Eucharia, started scratching her body. I bought some drugs for her but it has kept getting worse everyday and now she has sores all over her body.

“I don’t know what to do next since I have no money to take her to the hospital. Some people advised me to look for herbs and that is what we are using now.”

Findings by Sunday Tribune show that RCM Primary School is not the only IDP camp in the area. Agbagbe community also houses IDP camps at St Francis Xavier Secondary School; at the Police Station; Sisters Convent and St Patrick’s Primary School.

Checks show that the Sisters Convent facility belongs to a Catholic Church whose members had to flee following an attack by herdsmen in 2019. Because they were yet to return to the area, the facility was turned into an IDP camp.

Plagued by hunger and lack of necessary amenities, these IDPs are being ravaged by diseases as the camps have become a feasting ground where death preys on the over 7,000 displaced persons residing there.

About two weeks ago, the outbreak of measles and chickenpox were recorded in the camps, thereby making life uncomfortable for displaced persons inside it.

For want of a properly designated maternity clinic/ward and facilities, displaced pregnant women inside Agbagbe IDP camps give birth inside the toilets. The toilet, a latrine, was constructed by Medecins Sans Frontieres, an international humanitarian organisation also known as Doctors Without Borders after it came into the camp over a year ago to treat malaria and diarrhea.

Reports had it that one of the women who used the latrine for delivery in recent times had a stillbirth while another lost her baby.

Because of the lack of medical attention, displaced persons who fall sick at the camps to other ailments now resort to taking native herbs as an alternative cure. This they use to treat measles and chickenpox.

Navigating life’s challenges hasn’t been rosy for displaced persons at the camps. The story is the same at St. Francis Xavier Camp in Agagbe, where 20-year-old mother of two, Mnena Stephen, lives with her husband. They hail from Tse-Ikyumbur village in Gaambe-Ushin Council Ward in Gwer West Local Government Area of the state.

Stephen, her husband and two kids, are part of the 40 people who stay inside the overcrowded Room 11, a classroom at St. Xavier Camp.

“We are almost 40 people living in a small room at St Francis Xavier camp. There is no privacy and you cannot sleep well. We are all targets for mosquitoes,” she narrated.

The 20-year-old told Sunday Tribune that she found it difficult to breastfeed Franca, her youngest child, since her delivery about a month ago because her breasts were not producing milk. As an alternative, she feeds her infant with pap.

She said: “After giving birth to Franca about a month ago, she has been crying because she doesn’t get breast milk. Nothing is coming from my breasts. We only managed to buy a card of glucose for her and we don’t have money to continue buying it. I have decided to give her pap.”

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Speaking with Sunday Tribune, camp chairman, Terna Jacob, described life inside the five camps as very pathetic and one in need of serious and urgent attention.

Jacob explained that there are five camps in Agagbe because there were not enough space to house all the displaced persons, adding that the situation had posed challenges for camp officials who had to run around to attend to the needs of the displaced persons. The situation would have been worse for them if not for the intervention of a nonprofit organisation that has been coming to their aid.

According to Jacob, this nonprofit organisation is the Medecins Sans Frontieres.

“The only organization providing humanitarian assistance here is the Medecins Sans Frontieres and they have been here for about one and a half years but their assistance only covers malaria and diarrhea treatment.

“So, when it comes to the issue of measles and chickenpox, there is no medical assistance for the displaced persons. This is why they had to resort to herbs to treat the ailments.

“Initially, there were six people affected with measles but it later rose to 10 and we were advised to separate the infected persons from the general population which we did and we have not recorded any new case.”

‘Why displaced persons turned toilets to labour rooms’

Jacob also revealed that two neonatal deaths were recently recorded in the camps owing to lack of proper medical attention for pregnant women and displaced persons inside the camp in general.

“Just a few days ago, two people lost their babies. One was premature death, the other one lost the baby while giving birth. Both incidents happened penultimate Sunday and Monday.

“There is hunger in the camp. And because the pregnant women could not get money to go to the hospital, they delivered in the camp. Even a place to give birth is also a problem here; most women here give birth inside the toilet built by Medecins Sans Frontieres.

“If they don’t have money to go to the hospital, they use the toilet to give birth, since we are currently congested in the rooms. It is really tough,” Jacob lamented.

Asked about the population of the IDPs in Agbagbe, Jacob said 7,280 displaced persons are in all the five camps, comprising 1,556 households. He added they distribute whatever humanitarian aid they are able to get per household with preference for the vulnerable among them.

“For instance, the State Emergency and Management Agency (SEMA) brought 200 bags of 25kg rice to us a few weeks ago. What we did was to distribute them based on households and their status.

“There are people who are disabled. We have some whose hands and legs were cut off by herdsmen in our camps here; some of these vulnerable people get more because they cannot go out to look for something to augment what they are given in the camp.

“Unlike others who go and farm in neighbouring communities within Agagbe here, these people cannot do any other thing,” Jacob explained while appealing to the Federal Government to secure the rural communities so that the IDPs can return home and start a fresh life.