Let those festering in camps return home

A senior priest in Nigeria has called on the government to help Christians in displacement camps desperate to fulfil their dreams and return to their ancestral lands.

Father Remigius Ihyula of Makurdi Diocese – where Christians have been forced from their homes in Benue State by terrorist attacks – told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that there is an urgent need to help IDPs (internally displaced persons) return to the farming lands they were driven from.

Father Ihyula said: “We must move beyond the ‘camp culture’ and restore the dignity of the people of Benue in order to restore the entire social and economic fabric.”

Earlier this week Benue State Government launched a five-year plan aimed at increasing agricultural production – which has fallen in Nigeria’s Middle Belt as farmers have been driven from their fields.

He added: “The objective is simple – to help our people become self-reliant on the lands of their ancestors, where they have their roots and which they have cultivated for centuries.”

Home to more than two million people forced from their villages – 98 percent of whom are Christian – Benue State has seen mass displacement following attacks carried out by radicalised members of the Fulani herding community.

While the government is starting to resettle displaced families elsewhere in the state, the local Church is demanding action to allow them to go home.

According to the Church, the government’s plan perpetuates injustice, as it would allow Fulani extremists to keep possession of the land they seized.

While Benue State Government is hoping families will be able to return to their lands in the long term, the Church wants to see concrete action to help families go back, as more than a decade after the first attacks areas taken by force remain in the hands of militants.

Father Ihyula demanded urgent action to address the situation of IDPs.
He said “Survivors living in camps or host communities have been forced to adopt unsafe coping mechanisms in order to survive, including child labour, prostitution and child marriage.

“We have also seen an increase in drug use and trafficking.”

The priest also called for problems in the camps to be addressed including the “school dropout rate of over 90 percent, the complete absence of healthcare facilities, and the lack of psychosocial support or trauma counselling.”

Last Friday (31st July), hundreds of IDPs blocked the Makurdi-Lafia Expressway protesting that money was not reaching state projects designed to help them.

Mwuese Ugela, one of the protesters, told Premium Times: “We heard in the news that the First Lady had given the Benue State Government ₦1 billion. And if we don’t protest, that money will never reach us. They have been doing this to us over and over.”

With thanks to Maria Lozano and Filipe d’Avillez