Refugees recount agonies at Benue IDP camps

Contrary to his expectations, Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, entered January 2018 with the shock of his life as some gangs of suspected herdsmen launched attacks on some communities in the state.

Residents of Guma, Logo and Okpokwa local government areas are the immediate victims of the attacks with about 170 deaths recorded while many were maimed and several others are still missing.

Though the dead have been buried, taking care of the living, who have been reduced to refugees in their own land, may have become a Herculean task for the governor who had publicly lamented that he had lost sleep since the attacks.

According to official data, over 170,000 persons are living in nine designated camps located around Guma and Logo local government areas, including Kwande Local Government which hosts displaced people from Cameroon.

Concerned by the welfare of those Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), Governor Ortom recently visited their camps where he expressed his anguish over their condition, assuring them of his government continued efforts to restore peace in the attacked communities.

“God should strengthen the president. We appreciate his efforts but we are appealing that exercise Ayem-A-Kpatuma should be upgraded to an operation that would ensure that those who have been sacked by Fulani herdsmen can go back to their ancestral homes,” he said.

The governor also called on the Federal Government to urgently declare the herdsmen behind the killings as ‘terrorist group’, stressing that those herdsmen are not just herdsmen but mercenaries.

According to him, the activities of herdsmen had clearly indicated that there can be no other suitable name to call them other than terrorists.

“Unless the Federal Government declares this militias group as terrorists, government cannot provide better security and a lasting solution to the invasion by herdsmen. The exercise AyemAKpatuma(Cat Race) currently being carried out in the state had not yielded the desired result as displaced people could either return to their various abode or stop the killings,” he added.

Nigerian Tribune which visited four camps within Guma Local Government Area; Abegana, along Makurdi-Abuja road,  LGEA Primary School and shelter camp provided by UNCHR all in Daudu as well as Gbamjinba saw the pathetic conditions of the displaced persons.

One of the refugees, Mrs Jeniffer Agba, admitted that government officials share foodstuffs and other basic things to them but said they were not enough.

According to her, “the state government has been doing its best to cater for us here, but the problem is that the people are too many in Abagena camp here. Do you know that in a room, we have more than 40 person? And the weather is not friendly.”

The woman, who claimed to have five children, said that her children have been out of school since the beginning of the year, adding that many of them are becoming malnourished as a result of hunger.

Also speaking, a pregnant woman, who identified herself as Agnes, said she came to the camp early February when her village was attacked, lamenting that she has to be put with about 40 women in a room with no mattress or mosquito nets.

“Since I came to this camp, l have no access to healthcare, my pregnancy is now eight months and l have never been to antenatal. l slept with about 40 others in the room without mattresses or mosquito nets, no food, no medical facilities to cater for us. Women are being delivered of babies on a daily basis,” she said.

Another pregnant woman, Mrs Theresa Kajo, said that she made the camp her home after the attack.

It was gathered that the population of the Abegana camp was 34,019. At LGEA Primary School in Dausu, over 17,859 persons were camped in three blocks of four classrooms.

102,000 children of IDPs out of school in Benue

It was the same story at the camp provided by UNCHR in Daudu where most of the refugees are Tiv bit of Nasarawa State origin.

Mrs Comfort Ayilar, who said she came from Kadarko in Nasarawa State after herdsmen attack on the village in February this year, commended Benue State government for accommodating them.

She said: “The condition of the camp is manageable. I have no option. I used to stay alone with my husband and three children in our room before my husband died two years ago. After he died, I was staying alone with my children until my stepson married me and impregnated me recently. Now I have to share a room with over 40 people. It’s not easy but does I have a choice?

“In this camp, we do not have water but we make use of nearby stream. Our children have not been going to school but my prayer is that the Federal Government should stop these attacks that have become annual thing.

To Pa Damusa Utov, a man in his 60s, losing his privacy was his regret in spite of the challenges confronting displaced persons.

“I do not know how to describe this country. For an elderly man at my age becoming a refugee in his homeland is so pathetic. As a retired civil servant, I decided to relocate to my village to continue to enjoy my life till death only to be facing this challenge nearly every year.

“This year’s crisis is the worst of all, because this is the one that would affect my village and turned me to a refugee. For the first time, I had to leave my village and become a refugee in the camp with my three wives.

“The state government is trying but the food is hardly ever enough to go round. Most times, we end up sleeping without food because the little that is brought is shared to us but it always doesn’t go round,” he said.