An appeal has been made to the United Nations, the European Union, other international agencies and development partners to urgently deploy their resources and expertise to address the alleged pressing humanitarian crisis in Benue State.
The call to action was made by Nigeria’s Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, during her visit to the Ichiwa Internally Displaces Persons (IDPs) camp, nestled within the North Bank axis of Makurdi.
Accompanied by the state governor, Rev Father Hyacinth Alia, Edu said she witnessed, firsthand, the dire conditions being faced by the 14,000 IDPs in Ichiwa and million others across various IDP camps in the state.
Rasheed Olanrewaju Zubair, special adviser on media and publicity to the minister, conveyed this urgent message in a statement to the media.
Expressing her grave concern, Edu emphasized the impossibility of shouldering the burden alone, both for the federal and the state government.
She decried the unacceptable living conditions at the IDP camps, describing them as ticking time bomb that could escalate into an unmitigated humanitarian crisis if immediate action isn’t taken.
She laments: “I feel so heavy in my heart, and I will have sleepless nights about what I have seen here until we find solutions,” adding that the dire situation of families living in cramped shanties that cannot withstand natural elements moved her to tears.
She also announced plans to build low-cost houses for the displaced persons and emphasized the need for all stakeholders in the humanitarian space to urgently deploy to Benue, and characterized the situation as an emergency, urging international partners, donor agencies, and everyone in the humanitarian sector to heed the call.
“The federal government of Nigeria requests, as a matter of urgency, for all international partners, donor agencies including UN and indeed everyone in the humanitarian space to deploy to Benue state, the situation is an emergency,” she stressed.
She also acknowledge the federal and state government’s interventions, including shelter, water, sanitation, hygiene programmes and educational initiatives, but maintained that the scale of the crisis required collaborative efforts.
Expressing concern about potential gender-based violence and other forms violence against women in the camp, she stressed the more urgent need for intervention and called on parents in the IDP camps to ensure the protection and education of their children.
Governor Alia acknowledged the federal government’s fulfilling promises made to the people of Benue regarding the resettlement of IDPs in their ancestral homes, and commended the minister’s intervention during her visit while he expressed optimism about the positive impact of the FG’s humanitarian projects in the state.
The visit concluded with the minister’s donation of relief materials such as food and non-food items to the IDPs with hopes that this would provide some immediate relief while awaiting broader assistance from the international partners as she had requested.
