In Benue Five reported dead in IDP camps

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom on Friday, March 2, said five Internally Displaced Persons  (IDPs) including three children.

The IDPs abandoned their homes and took refuge at various IDPs camps in the state following continued attacks by Fulani herdsmen in their communities.

Ortom said two of the deceased were crushed by a truck while crossing the busy highway around the location of the Abegana camp.

The governor disclosed this when the National Commission For Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCRMI) visited the state to distribute relief items for displaced people.

  Mass burial for the victims of fulani herdsmen in Benue State (Ayola TV)

Speaking earlier during the visit to two of the IDPs camps near Makurdi, the Federal Commissioner of NCRMI, Sadiya Umar Farouq, said the intervention is meant to ameliorate the sufferings of some Persons Of Concerns (POCs) to the commission.

"Let me state that the items provided for our POCs does not reflect the totality of our interventions, rather a demonstration of our continued support to the Benue State Government in its efforts to provide succor and other necessary social services for our POCs and communities in the state," she said.

The commissioner, who was represented by Mr. Charles Anaelo, noted that the NCFRMI is aware of the influx of over 10, 000 Cameroonian migrants presently in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue state.

She added that the commission in collaboration with the United Nation High Commission for the Refugees (UNHCR) is currently conducting data registration of all the victims for further necessary action.

Farouq further assured that the commission is committed to ensuring that the lives of the IDPs are improved, rehabilitated and fully restored.

Over 100 people have been killed by Fulani herdsmen in the state in series of attacks which started on December 31, 2017.

On January 11, 2018, the state government conducted a mass burial for 71 victims of the herdsmen crisis.

The killer herdsmen are said to be protesting the implementation of anti-open grazing law in the state.

Governor Ortom has, however, asserted that there is no going back on the law.