Our security not guaranteed — Benue IDPs

Villagers who fled their homes to shelter at the Abagana Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Makurdi are still living in fear. …

Villagers who fled their homes to shelter at the Abagana Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Makurdi are still living in fear. 

Our correspondent reports that the IDPs have decried the fragile nature of security around the camp occasioned by a recent attack on them during which seven people lost their lives.

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Some of them, who spoke to our correspondent who visited the camp at the outskirts of Makurdi urged the federal government to establish a police post near the camp to better secure their lives.

Manager of the Abagana camp, Iliagh Terhile, said since the recent attack (a few months ago) on the camp, some of the IDPs could no longer sleep with their two eyes closed.

“The security of the camp is not guaranteed. We want government to provide security outfit close to the camp to be able to respond to any emergency or eventualities.

“I stay here in the camp but we have not been sleeping with our two eyes closed. When herdsmen attacked this area some months back, and some of our IDPs were also killed, some had to flee but after a while returned because they have nothing to eat out there,” he said.

Terhile who advised the federal government to shelve its idea to close IDP camps across the country, stressed that the issue of camp closure was a complex one because the security of the IDPs could not yet be guaranteed for return to their ancestral home.

“If they must return, security measures must be put in place at their various communities. They also have to be helped with finance and seedlings else, you have just succeeded in breeding criminals.

“The psychological wellbeing of the IDPs should also be ascertained and managed before they are reintegrated into the society to avoid enmity and violence among them,” he added.

Terhile also said lack of food and Water, Hygiene, Sanitation, (WASH) supplies was part of challenges in the camp aside insecurity.

He is also expressed worry over cases of infectious diseases such as ringworm, scabies, diarrhoea among others in the camp.

“Our common challenge now is food supply. The population can’t even access farmlands and some of them are from Nasarawa State. The major challenge is for them to return to their ancestral homes to continue with their lives and this can only happen when their security is guaranteed. 

“Most times, especially during farming season, some tried going back to farms but the herdsmen would always come and feast on their produce at the end of the farming season during harvest,” Terhile said.

According to him, at least 28 IDPs, including 20 adults and eight children, have died at the Abagana IDP camp, in Makurdi, between 2018 and now while 30 women within the period are currently nursing new born babies and many others are pregnant.