Over 4,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), mostly farmers in Nasarawa State, are currently enduring agonising hardship as a result of recent bandit attacks in Awe, Keana, and Domain Local Councils.
The IDPs are currently suffering from hunger, a lack of shelter, and other basic necessities. According to reports, 45 people, mostly children, who have taken sanctuary in public facilities in the local councils of Awe, Keana, and Obi have purportedly perished owing to a shortage of medical assistance in the camps.
The IDPs are local farmers from villages in Nasarawa State, which shares borders with Benue and Taraba states, and whose settlements were recently attacked.
Over 2,000 IDPs, largely women and children, were in desperate need of food at the three main camps visited by The Guardian, including the Central Primary School in Awe.
Some of the children reported that they had been eating mango fruits, while their appearances and the majority of the elderly IDPs revealed that they had not bathed in days.
Mr Joseph Amuwa, the IDPs’ spokesperson, voiced concern about the hardship and neglect, as well as the lack of security around the camp.
Amuwa stated that they had sought refuge at the primary school since 2018, following attacks on their towns by gunmen suspected of being herdsmen.
Mrs Anna Adyier, another IDP who characterized their conditions as dehumanizing, urged the state government to assist by giving them with relief supplies. She mentioned that around 40 individuals, including children, sleep in a single classroom.
The Village Head of Gidan Buhu, one of the communities targeted, said that lately, when he and a few other men sought to return home to their farms, they were attacked, but narrowly escaped with bullet wounds, while some of his relatives were killed.
He stated that approximately 20 people, predominantly children, died in the camp between 2019 and 2022 as a result of unsanitary food and a lack of health care facilities.
Similarly, approximately 1,500 IDPs sought refuge in the classrooms of the Pilot Science Primary School Keana, where their leader, Mr. Dennis Iornya, bemoaned that they had been abandoned since living had become miserable for them, particularly during the rainy season.
Mrs. Mercy Chahur and Mrs. Adasho Deborah, who had just given birth at the camp a week before, bemoaned how they watched helplessly as their children became ill and died one after the other due to a lack of medical assistance.
In response to the incident, Mr. Zakariya Allumaga, Executive Secretary of the Nasarawa State Emergency Management Agency, stated that the state government will dispatch a team of personnel to do a head count of the IDPs in order to provide them with relief goods.
