Humanitarian Crisis as 40,000 are Displaced in Benue after Attacks
A major humanitarian crisis has hit the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps created to accommodate Benue indigenes fleeing the herdsmen attacks which about 71 persons have died.
No fewer than 40,000 people are in overcrowded camps which lack the basic things.
The state has declared three-day mourning for the victims during which flags will fly at half mast. Thursday will be work-free. Offices will close at 1pm today and tomorrow.
The period will be rounded off with the mass burial of 71 bodies on Thursday.
Governor Samuel Ortom, who declared the mourning period because of the killings in Logo and Guma Local Government Areas, said the mourning period will be from today till Thursday.
A church service for the victims at the IBB Square in Makurdi will precede the mass burial.
Guma Local Government Chairman Mr. Anthony Shawon recalled that the herders invaded Saav, Mbadyen and Uvir villages on Jan.1 and retreated to the forest of Dogon Yashi, stretching from Guma to Logo on the banks of River Benue, covering over 57 kilometres..
Shawon, who lamented the destruction of crops, farms and homes by the invaders, said survivors had left their ancestral homes and were looking for shelter in nearby towns.
He said the state government had approved the setting up of camps for the displaced persons but regretted that the few already established were overcrowded by the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
“The camps at Guma and Gbajimba are overcrowded, but the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) is already handling the situation because, as a local government, the scale is beyond us.”
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