The herdsmen’s violence against farmers has created a new hu- manitarian crisis in the Middle Belt region over the past five years. In its report UNHCR maps over 400,000 in the Benue State. Howe- ver, according to Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State there are over two million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 10,000 refugees from Cameroon in Benue 17 . According to representatives of the diocese of Makurdi, located in Benue state, attacks by armed herdsmen (Fulani) – which take pla- ce almost weekly – have claimed many lives and properties and rendered countless people homeless, thereby forcing them to relocate the population to the 13 official Internally Displaced Per- son’s (IDPs) camps in Benue state. Many others live with relatives in host communities and unofficial camps. However, this tragedy is still largely ignored by the media and even by international aid agencies, much more focused on the serious situation in the northeast of the country. There are no comprehen- sive reports on the situation. The local government area of Guma hosts most IDPs in Benue state. There are four camps (two in Daudu and one each in Ortese and Gbajimba) along with other hosting communities and unoffi-
cial camps. In addition, the area was badly affected by the October 2022 floods that destroyed many farms, houses and properties. The combined effects of the attacks and displacement and the re- cent flood situation have worsened what were already precarious living condition: “They are without food. They don’t have a bed. People who used to fend for themselves now have to beg to eat, to feed themselves. The children in the camps are malnourished, some walk around naked. They don’t even have a shirt to put on. They have not been able to go to school for many years. They can- not access medical care. They don’t have water. They lack the ba- sic things of life, such as where to live, where to shelter their heads. If you go to the IDP camps you will see the frustration because people just walk around until they get tired. And they sleep on the bare ground. This is the condition that human beings have been reduced to for many years. We are not talking about a year, we are talking about years, and nobody is talking about this situation. If they try to return to their farms, they are hunted like wild animals. So they are living in a cycle of hopelessness. They can’t go to their farms. They live in the camps. They don’t have access to anything”, says Father Remigius Ihyula, project partner of ACN, in charge of the emergency relief program of the Diocese of Makurdi.
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