...As harmattan, cold weather hit them hard

By Ibrahim Hassan-Wuyo 

Many people  in Kaduna State that have been displaced b bandits and kidnapper’s attacks on their villages in Chukun, Kajuru and Birnin Gwari local governments areas of Kaduna state, taking refuge at different IDP camps, have cried out to governments at all levels to help them with relief materials.

They are particularly,disturbed about lack of thick clothing and blankets ,as the harmattan and attendant cold season had made them so vulnerable to a natural calamity. 

They  also begged the authorities to secure their communities so that they can return to their villages.

Journalists were told that the displaced people from villages that include Malmo, Garu, Gbagyi Rumana and Badna in Birnin Gwari LGA, and Ungwan Boka, Araha 1 and 2 in Kajuru local government, have been displaced for about two years now. 

While those from Birnin Gwari and parts of Chikun LGA are still at the Ungwan Zwahu IDP camp in Goningora, those from Kajuru LGA have started going back to their destroyed villages.

Speaking to Journalists on Sunday, when officials from a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Resilient Aid and Dialogue Initiative (RADI), took food and clothes to them, the IDPs said, though they ran away from their communities when attacks started from 2019, but would happily go back if the abandoned communities could be fully secured.

“We want to go back to our farms, instead of waiting like beggers for people to come and bring food to us,” said, a father of five from Malmo village.

Speaking at both IDP camps, co-founders of RADI, Reuben Buhari and Alheri Magaji, who led other volunteers to share out relief materials to 100 IDPs at the Goningora camp and 110 at the Rimau centre, said the plight of the IDPs requires urgent help from the government and other individuals.

“This is the harmattan season with all its attendant discomfort and these people you see are in dire need. Thought they would go back to their destroyed villages if they can be secured, but their urgent need now is food, clothing and proper shelter from the elements.”

“What we in RADI have been doing for two years with these vulnerable people, is trying to meet their urgent needs,” said Buhari. 

Journalists are still awaiting official reaction from the State Emergency Relief Agency ( SEMA) ,on  the development.