Benue Killings: 3,000 dislodged in three IDP camps in Nasarawa

The Director General of Nasarawa State Emergency Management Agency (NASEMA), Barrister Benjamin Akwas, has said that not fewer than 3,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are currently in four camps in Nasarawa State following the massacre of over 200 people in Yelwata, a border town between Benue and Nasarawa State.

Akwas confirmed to our correspondent in Lafia that the IDPs were taking refuge in the camps, which include Kadarko, Agyaragu, Idadu and Kpata.

According to the NASEMA DG, 462 IDPs are in Idadu and 521 at Kpata, all in Doma Local Government. Meanwhile, over 1,800 are taking refuge at St. John Primary School, Agyaragu I, Lafia Local Government, and over 40 are at Kadarko in Keana Local Government.

Akwash disclosed that the agency had, a day before the Yelwata attack, visited the Kadarko camp where food and non-food items were distributed to over a thousand Tiv farmers who fled their homes following conflict between Fulanis and Tiv farmers.

“The agency is currently taking a head count of IDPs to help us determine all plans to reach out to the displaced residents in the four camps following the attack on Yelwata on Saturday last week,” he said.

The DG, however, disclosed that there had been an increase in the various camps since the attack, and called on them to stay calm.

An assessment by our reporter shows that the four IDP camps, which house mostly women and children, are desperately in need of food, health care services and sleeping materials, as most of them sleep on the bare floor.

Some of the women at the Agyaragu camp spoke to our correspondent about the unbearable sleeping conditions and the lack of food situation they are facing.

“We need urgent attention from the government and any good Nigerian because we left everything behind because of the deadly attack on our people at Yelwata,” one Evelyn Iyohem lamented.

Another member of the camp, Jonathan Hembe, complained bitterly about hunger and poor sanitary conditions. Others said that mosquitoes prevented them from sleeping at night because the building is an open hall.