By Marie-Therese Nanlong

As you approach the internally displaced persons’ camp, mostly populated by women and children and situated at a corner of the Zang Commercial School, Bukuru, a funny smell hits your nostrils. You see the inmates going about their daily chores wearing long faces. Except the laughter from children who play quietly in the compound, the sight is depressing.

While some of the women were seen washing clothes and plates, others were bathing little children. Some were plaiting their hair. This was the morning of Tuesday, December, 23 when Sunday Vanguard visited the camp.

Some young men were seen lying on bunks lost in thought while some old men lay on thin mats on the floor despite the morning cold.

These internally displaced people from villages in the North-East found their way into Jos, the Plateau State capital, after escaping insurgents’ attacks. While some came as a family, many came as individuals as they could not locate their family members and could not tell if they were alive or dead.

*A people displaced

On arrival, 1,000 of them were taken in by Mr. Mark Lipdo who runs the Stefanos Foundation, a Christian organization helping persecuted Christians especially in northern Nigeria.

Since their arrival in the first quarter of the year, many public spirited individuals and groups have given helping hands for their upkeep but the people are not happy as they have no means of livelihood and are practically destitute.

Speaking to Sunday Vanguard, one of the camp’s inmates, Simon Musa, lamented the hard times they were going through, saying the only consolation was that God will one day wipe away their tears away.

He appealed to government at all levels to do all within their power to end of insurgency in the county as “it is disheartening being a refugee in one’s homeland.”

Musa called for the plight of IDPs to be adequately addressed as the trauma they were through was enormous maintaining, “we luckily escaped from the killers, help us escape lack by empowering us.”

He went on: “Some of us here have lost contact with our family members, some escaped without any family. We are here depending on others to eat and survive but for how long? We are traumatized but something can still be done to empower us and make us self-reliant because we lost everything, particularly our means of livelihood.”

However, to alleviate the plight of the children in the camp during yuletide, the Interim National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Youth Wing, Ekiye Ekiye, gave gifts to them.

Addressing the IDPs during the visit, Ekiye urged them to imbibe the spirit of forgiveness, desist from holding grudges and pray for those who persecute them.

He added, “We came here to identify with you and encourage you not to give up on your faith in God. Jesus is Lord forever; don’t hate those who put you in this situation. Pray for them and remember that you have to love your enemies irrespective of the circumstances. We believe God will help us as a country to overcome these challenges.”

Responding on behalf of Stefanos Foundation, Ayuba Planji, who is the Foundation’s Project Manager, appreciated the gesture but appealed to public spirited people and organizations to donate medicine and vaccine to take care of the health needs of the people. According to Plangji, “We have 1,000 people from 114 families here and they are mostly women and children. We tested them when they arrived and, so far, 45 people have been diagnosed with Hepatitis B. Health-wise, there is a risk, so we plead with people to come and donate vaccine and medicine to treat the people and curb the spread of the sickness in camp.”