Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps in Benue State are currently overstretched as killer herdsmen continue their marauding attacks on agrarian communities in the state.
Journalist who visited some of the camps over the weekend, reports that the IDPs are facing a serious humanitarian crisis.
They voiced their frustration, lamenting that they were dying of starvation.
In the last few days, many Benue communities have fallen prey to the killer herdsmen, who also left thousands displaced from their ancestral homes.
Residents of Wandor, Mbaikyor community in the Mbalom Council Ward of Gwer East Local Government Area, LGA of the state, were the latest victims.
The invaders, who razed over 50 houses, huts, farmlands and food barns in 11 settlements, killed a retired army officer, and 16 others.
Prior to that incident, natives of Apa, Kwande and Guma Local Government Areas of Benue State, also fell victims of another round of attacks which left scores killed and several others injured.
The herders, who had invaded several Benue communities with thousands of cattle since the coming of the dry season, relentlessly attacked Ubele, Ochumekwu, Adija, Kano and Ijaha in Apa LGA.
Confirming the attacks, National Chairman of Apa Development Association, a socio-cultural group of people, Mr. Eche Akpoko lamented the unending attacks and killings in Apa by the marauders, saying the attacks were carried out in three days.
He said: “I can confirm to you that there were series of attacks on the following communities: Ijaha-Ibele, where five people were killed; Ochumekwu recorded three casualties; in Adija, one person was killed, same as Kano community, where one person was also killed. These were all in Apa LGA.”
Suspected armed herdsmen also launched several attacks on various communities in Agatu and Otukpo Local Government Areas of Benue state leaving many people dead, others injured and many others deserting their ancestral homes.
It also reported that suspected gunmen launched another series of attacks on residents of Iwili community in Entekpa Ward, located in the Adoka District of Otukpo Local Government Area of the state.
According to a legal practitioner from the affected area, Ada Ocholi, some armed men, dressed in military uniforms, climbed trees to launch their onslaught on the unsuspecting residents.
“I can’t say the number of corpses recovered so far, because yesterday, I was in touch with our youth leader there.
“He told me that they just came back from the bush and there were so many of the gunmen in the bush with military uniforms, and that some of them were on top of trees with sophisticated weapons,” she told our correspondent.
Another source in the area, who said the attacks commenced on Saturday and spread till Monday, revealed that the attacks left several persons injured, while surviving residents of the affected villages had deserted and fled for fear of being killed.
“They came from Agatu which they have been attacking since the beginning of the year. They came through Opaha in Apa LGA and accessed Iwili community in Umogidi from where they also stormed Entekpa,” the local said.
Speaking to Journalists,the Adoka traditional ruler, Och’Adoka Alegwu Samuel Onuh, frowned at the renewed attack on the district, saying the Adoka people are lovers of Fulanis without any previous bad records with the herders.
He said, “We are peace-loving people who have never had any nasty previous records with the Fulanis, but now they have come to attack us and made away with our belongings and the means of our livelihood.”