IDP Camps: From temporary to permanent abodes in Benue

As insecurity lingers in many communities riddled with disturbances, the hope of victims being permanently resettled in their homes continues to be a mirage.

BY TYAV SAM TYAV

Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs camps, world over are not known to be permanent camps. It does not in any way become the permanent homes of the occupants.

Primarily, the IDP camps are meant for victims of crisis to rest their heads after which they go back to their ancestral homes. During natural disasters like heavy down pour which displaces people, such victims of the disaster are provided with temporary abodes after the disaster, they return to their places.

The same thing applies to man-made disasters like wars. Victims of wars need shelters and after the war, they return to their areas to continue with their normal life activities.

Victims of such disasters are referred to internally displaced persons, IDPs because their displacement is internal. It is within the country. Where people outside the country are affected by a disaster and are taking refuge in another country, they are referred to as refugees. By referring to the victims as IDP alone seems to reduce tension and the weight it carries even as it does not reduce the sufferings of the victims by any percent.

In Nigeria, the IDP camps meant for victims of the herdsmen attacks on farmers are becoming their permanent abodes. In Benue State for instance, the IDPs camps were accommodating over two hundred thousand victims and the people are still in these camps. A negligible percentage of people decided to leave the camps to meet their blood relations in urban centres and other villages said to be less vulnerable while a lot of those who have nobody to run to are still taking refuge in these camps.

It would be recalled that before the 2018 New Year unprovoked attacks by the herders where a lot of people were mercilessly butchered and 73 corpses were recovered and given mass burial, some people were already in IDP camps. This goes to explain that some IDPs have remained in the camps close to ten years. From the black new year of 2018 to date alone is three years.

This means three years of hunger, diseases of overcrowding, restlessness and other forms of sufferings. No one can claim that he or she has been comfortable in the IDPs camps. Even people that are seemingly irresponsible cannot claim to be comfortable in the IDPs camps. This is not a place for one’s worst enemy.

A visit to any of the camps would reveal a pathetic situation, a situation that would not only send sympathy but one would even run into tears. You will admit that people are indeed suffering in their land under the watch of the government. It would be glaring to you that the people are not well fed.

The places they sleep can only be imagined. It would also be clear that the health needs of the victims were not adequately cared for. Kudos to the international health organizations like the Red Cross Society among other that regularly comes to the aid of the IDP. Some of these organizations have some of their personnel stationed at the camps to attend to situations.

It is rather unfortunate but equally interesting that the victims still have time for fun which is an inbuilt quality and they are giving birth to children. In Benue’s IDP camps alone the population of children born in the camps is in hundreds.

Difficult as the situation is, God is taking care of the babies in the camps even as they are grossly being underfed. Given the poor condition of the victims, the new babies born in the camps are exposed to a lot of dangers that accompany harsh weather.

Not quite long, the Benue State Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Rev Akpen Leva visited Abagena Camp in Makurdi Local Government Area and that of Gbajimba and Daudu camp3 in Guma LGA to distribute food items to the IDP to cushion their suffering.

The man of God was shocked beyond words on discovering that some IDPs were sleeping on bare grounds and there were no mats for them. He openly wept and sympathized with them over their condition. The CAN Chairman who called on spirited individuals, corporate organizations and the government to came to the aid of the victims, expressed hope that the IDP would one day go back to their ancestral homes.

Rev. Leva expressed the hope that God was watching and that there was nothing hidden before him.

“Even if no one is coming to their rescue, God who sees all things would certainly intervene and no one should lose hope in God as that God will not disappoint them”, the cleric called on the federal government to release the N10bn promised by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo during the burial of two priests and other parishioners massacred by the herdsmen in Benue State.

Again Pastor Moses Godspecial of the Global Christian Update, during a visit to Anyiin and Ayilamo in Logo LGA where he interacted with the victims IDPs wondered why the IDPs have remained in the camps for years. He noted with firm belief that what the herders were doing was not far from a jihad.

He wondered why they would come to a community when they least expect them only to open fire on them and kill them indiscriminately. While lamenting the pathetic situation the IDPs were found in, the cleric also urged the victim not to be discouraged by the actions of the attackers but to remain undetached from their God who would one day rescue the from the hands of the cruel herdsmen.

Investigation has also shown that over one thousand people have died from different camps following their attempts to go back to their ancestral homes. Others went to their villages but not directly to their houses to look for firewood for sale so as to get something to eat and they didn’t come back.

According to one of them, “Nobody likes living outside his hometown like a refugee, but when your place is riddled with killers, and where there is no security, what will you do? You will choose to be alive”.

Herders attacked them in the bush and butchered them. The cruel herders would even allow their victims in the bush to call their loved ones and inform them of the condition they were in after which they end up killing them. This experience by some IDP has generated fear in the camps so much that those who are not brave cannot contemplate visiting their villages.

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As grotesque and unbelievable as it may appear, some of the villages and even houses have been occupied by the herdsmen. The natives and original inhabitants of these villages and houses are in IDPs camps. One IDP informed in Anyiin camp in Logo Local Government area that some herdsmen are kind such that when the original owner of the house goes to the house in the village and wants to pluck an orange or mango the herders would be asking where you got the permission to pluck the orange or mango.

This is only to a kind Fulani man. Wicked ones according to him, is shoot at sight. This, he noted was part of the fear to leave the camps and go back to the villages. The IDP informed that though they have a lot of challenges but the desire of all of them was to go back to their villages and continue with their normal life activities.

What has remained inexplicable is the silence and inaction on the side of the federal government. The temporary abodes which have become permanent ones can be rightly attributed to the fault of the federal government for her inaction which connotes support to the herdsmen.

It is unimaginable for people to remain in IDPs camps for years. One begins to wonder why a government that is meant to protect lives and property of the people indiscriminately would abandon her citizens to remain refugees in their country for years. How can such inaction of the federal government be distinguished from irresponsibility?

This also calls to question whether democracy being practiced in Nigeria as defined Abraham Lincoln as a government of the people by the people and for the people has any place in Nigeria. From the look of things the government at the centre seems not to be for all. It looks more of a sectional government which cares for the interest of only those who are more Nigerians to her.

If truly Nigeria is for all Nigerians and that all Nigerians deserve the protection of the federal government, urgent steps should be taken to settle the IDPs. There is no place like home. No matter how comfortable one settles in an environment that is not his own, his desire is always to go back home to his hut. Given the condition of the IDPs all of them are longing to go back to their ancestral homes even as all of them are armed with the belief that no place like home.

QUOTE:

Nobody likes living outside his hometown like a refugee, but when your place is riddled with killers, and where there is no security, what will you do? You will choose to be alive.