The Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) says there are now 27 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the State which is housing about two million IDPs.
Executive Secretary of the agency, Dr. Emmanuel Shior, said in Makurdi while flagging off the distribution of relief materials to the IDPs that the camps comprised seven official and 20 unofficial camps scattered across the State.
Dr. Shior stated that the monthly food distribution exercise was delayed due to logistical challenges, assuring that the State government, though overstretched by the magnitude of the humanitarian challenge, would continue to provide for the IDPs.
He noted that SEMA would ensure that the truck loads of food items which included rice, noddles, beans, cooking oil and other consumables always gets to the destination they were meant for and not diverted, insisting that the State government would not abandoned the people in their time of need.
According to Dr Shior, “some believe that when we load relief materials from our central warehouse here in Makurdi, we do not take them to the camps; they claim that what we are doing is a sham. But I believe that the media cannot be part of any sham and that is why Governor Ortom has always insisted that we always ensure that the media is present during our distribution process for the purpose of transparency and accountability and we have not deviated from that.”
The Executive Secretary, who lamented the worsening humanitarian crisis in the State occasioned by the frequent attacks and displacement by terrorists and bandits in several communities, disclosed that the agency had received reports that eight communities in Kwande Local Government Area (LGA) of the State had been attacked and occupied by Fulani herdsmen who displaced the locals.
“We have received the report of the invasion of communities in Kwande LGA and we have visited that area but we are going back to do a needs assessment because we are recording increase in the number of displaced persons due to the continuous attacks,” he said.
