Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom said five Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) including three children taking refuge at designated camps in Benue State have died.
He said the IDPs fled their homes as a result of the sustained fulani killings.
Governor Samuel Ortom made this known on Friday when the National Commission For Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCRMI) visited the state to distribute relief items for displaced people.
Ortom said that two of the five deceased were crushed by a truck while crossing the busy highway around the location of the Abegana camp, as he expressed worry that they ran away from their homes to secure their lives but found death in the camp.
Earlier, the Federal Commissioner of NCRMI, Sadiya Umar Farouq, said during the visit to two of the IDPs camps situated in Guma Local Government Area, near Makurdi out of a total of nine camps in the state that the intervention was 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 succour and other necessary social services for our POCs and communities in the State,” she said.
Represented by Mr Charles Anaelo, the commissioner noted that the NCFRMI was aware of the influx of over 10, 000 Cameroonian migrants presently in Kwande Local Government Area of the Benue state, adding 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.
She therefore reiterated the commission’s commitment to continue to work very hard to ensure that the lives of the IDPs are improved, rehabilitated and fully restored while stressing that in this phase of intervention, the commission had distributed food, care and empowerment items to POCs in the state.
TheNation
