Despite Recent Killings, Benue Still A Safe Haven For Refugees

Despite the recent killings in Benue state that has left the country worried, the state government has said that at least 10,000 refugees fleeing from political crisis in the Republic of Cameroon are being sheltered in two different camps.

The refugees, who were mainly women, children and the elderly, were in need of humanitarian assistance, especially food, medical care and shelter.

The Executive Secretary of Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Emmanuel Shior, said that this challenge, according to the state government, was coming when efforts were being intensified by the government to tackle incessant attacks on people of the state by armed Fulani herdsmen, who invaded and killed residents of Guma and Logo communities following implementation of the Anti-Open Grazing Prohibition Law by the state.

While addressing journalists on the humanitarian situation in the camps, Shior unveiled the government’s plans to merge and relocate the two refugee camps from their current locations in some primary schools to Monkwav in Kwande Local Government Area of the state for easy access.

Shior lamented constraints by the state government to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees whose numbers were increasing by the day and called for immediate intervention of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organisations.