…says Benue situation is unacceptable

By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The Federal has requested international partners, donor agencies, the United Nations agencies and everyone in the humanitarian space to deploy to Benue as a matter of urgency to tackle the worsening humanitarian crisis in the state.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu appealed Thursday at the Ichwa Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camp in the North Bank area of Makurdi, the state capital.

The Minister who donated relief materials to the IDPs in the state expressed shock at the scale of the humanitarian crisis in the state lamenting that the burden was beyond the state and even the Federal Government.

She noted that the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis was a clear indication that the state was sitting on a time bomb and that was why “the Federal Government of Nigeria requests as a matter of urgency for all the international partners, donors agencies, United Nations agencies and indeed everyone in the humanitarian space to deploy to Benue as a matter of urgency.

“The humanitarian situation in Benue is unacceptable. People must be resettled properly in their ancestral homes. The government cannot do this alone no matter how goodwilling the government is, it cannot do it all alone. So rather than play around and waste resources meant for Nigeria, this is where it can be put into appropriately and you will see the result.

“We are requesting as a Federal Government of Nigeria that every development partner and everyone in the humanitarian space should immediately deploy to Benue state.

“In this camp where we are standing alone, we have over 14,000 women, children, aged and their families, households living in a space that will not take me spreading out my hands. And you have six people living under these small shanties everywhere here.

“They need immediate intervention. The Federal Government of Nigeria working with the state government will intervene but will need all our development partners to put their foot on ground.

“Cases of Gender Based Violence, GBV, and others issues will be going on here in this camp. There are young girls everywhere and they are exposed to all sorts of violence. We must have intervention immediately.”

The Minister who urged IDPs to ensure that their children attend the schools provided for them assured that “President Tinubu had at the centre of his heart the humanitarian issue in Benue state assuring that all was being g done to have the IDPs return to their ancestral homes.