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From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
For the over 10,000 inmates of the Tse Yandev Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp located on JS Tarka University Road, North Bank, Makurdi, Benue State, it has been a story of hopelessness and uncertainty. Many of these inmates daily look forward to the day peace would return to their various communities so that they can return home and have a new lease of life.
But, as it is now, that hope seems to be confined to the dream world as, according to those who spoke to our correspondent last week, any attempt to return might just be like signing their death warrant.
The camp, which houses young and old, male and female, is located on a rocky portion of the Uniagric Road close to the former premises of OLAM Rice factory.
According to Mrs. Sewuese Seriki, a young mother of three from Niji Village in Mbagwen, Guma Local Government Area, although she wishes to return home, she cannot take that risk now because killer herdsmen are still occupying her village.
“I’ve been in this camp since December last year (2020), after the Fulani attacked our village. I was a farmer while in the village and I could conveniently feed my family as well as send my kids to school with the proceeds from my farm.
“Now, it’s difficult to feed my family. My children have also stopped schooling because we’re here at the mercy of God and benevolence of well-meaning Nigerians.
“I earnestly hope to return to my village but for the fear of the Fulani who are still there. We have attempted to do so in the past but had to return to this place,” she said.
Also, Comfort Agagu, another mother of three from Otyongu village in Makurdi LGA, who had been in the camp for over one year, disclosed that she and many members of her village ran to the camp after she was lucky to escape from the killer herdsmen.
“I want to go back to my village but the Fulani are still there,” she said in an emotion-laden voice after lamenting the deplorable condition under which they lived in the camp.
Ahemen Tiza, mother of two from Gwer West LGA, became a resident of the IDP camp after she escaped herdsmen’s onslaught on her community in November last year.
She disclosed that the attackers, whom she strongly believed were Fulani herdsmen, invaded her village one night and shot at random, killing eight people and injuring others in the process.
“That was what made us all to desert our village because we don’t know what we did to them and from what we are hearing, those herdsmen are either still occupying our village or come regularly to graze their cattle. That’s why we can’t go back home yet,” she said.
She appealed to the Federal Government to look into their plight and ensure the safety of their villages to enable them go back as soon as possible.
“I was a farmer in the village before the attack. Now, my children can no longer go to school. I want to return to my village but I’m afraid I will be killed if I do,” she lamented.
On his part, chairman of the camp, Yev Gabriel, who disclosed that the camp was housing 10,902 IDPs, said many more have continued to join the camp as a result of incessant attacks on their villages. He explained that the camp, which had only recently been approved by the state government, has IDPs from Makurdi, Guma and Gwer West local government areas of Benue State, while some others came from Taraba and Nasarawa states.
The camp, which has several hundreds of shanty abodes made with planks and mosquito nets until recently, lacked water and toilet facilities until Doctors Without Borders stepped in to provide these facilities.
He said, “There are many others that have come to join us here in the last one month due to the recent attacks in Yelwata, Yogbo, Orogbo and other areas of the state. Initially, we were 10,407 but now we are 10,902. Total household was 5,249, now 5,384. No death recorded yet but we have recorded some births.”
Yev while appreciating the state government for recently granting the camp an approval to continue to stay at that location, however, appealed for assistance in terms of food and non food items to be extended to them.
Said he: “We are surviving just by the grace of God. We survive through the assistance got from either churches or NGOs and well-meaning individuals. No government presence here yet. No health facility here yet, but we are hopeful that one day government will also turn its eyes our way.
“An NGO and Doctors Without Borders are the ones carrying out the construction of toilets but it’s an ongoing project; it’s yet to be completed. They have also been providing us water through tanks, while they also plan to sink boreholes here soon.”
He lamented that whenever it rained, he usually went through the extra task of relocating young, pregnant and aged IDPs to uncompleted buildings nearby, while others devised a means of covering their shanty abode with plastic sheet to avoid them being drenched.
“It has not been easy, especially when it rains. I tried to relocate some of the pregnant IDPs, aged people and children to uncompleted buildings around but it’s not been easy. If it rains throughout the night, then they would have to stand for as long as the rains last.”
The camp chairman also regretted that, in the last one month, over 200 IDPs, including the old and the young, have come down with malaria.
“We have malaria outbreak here. We bought N50,000 drugs on Saturday and the drugs have finished this morning (Monday). There’s no proper documentation but over 200 have had malaria in the last one month. An NGO from Lagos came and gave us N50,000 to treat the sick.
“Apart from malaria, people also complain of cough and catarrh but we have no COVID-19 cases here. No cholera but a few children have had diarrhea and we treated them.
“I will like to appeal to government and other well-meaning Nigerians to come to our aid in terms of food and medication. We will be happy if the government can give us attention,” Yev said.
The Benue State government had raised the alarm over the humanitarian crisis rocking the state, following incessant attacks on farmers by herdsmen, which had resulted in over 1.5 million people staying in IDP camps across the state.
The state government had also, through the Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Dr. Emmanuel Shior, recently appealed to the Federal Government to redeem its N10 billion pledge to resettle the IDPs in the state.
Right now, there are eight recognised IDP camps within the state, with some others housing thousands of inmates that are yet to be recognized by government.
