Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the killings in Benue have heaved a sigh of relief as they got relief materials from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Monday.
The relief materials, Blueprint gathered, which were worth about N45 million, were given to them in their various camps across Makurdi, the Benue state capital.
Some of the items donated included blankets, vegetable oil, beverages, toiletries, mattresses plastic buckets, bags of rice and bags of grains, wrappers, towels, children’s wears, mats, and treated mosquito nets.
Zonal coordinator of NEMA (North-central), Abdulsalam Mohammed, said the agency had been on ground for over two weeks and had gone round to the areas affected by the Tiv/Fulani crisis to take stock to be able to provide succour to the displaced.
He said when his team got to St. Mary’s Primary School in Makurdi, they discovered that the issue of sanitation was becoming very worrisome and felt the need to quickly construct some makeshift toilets across the eight designated camps to avoid outbreak of diseases.
Mohammed disclosed that the federal government immediately released funds to the agency to purchase relief materials before it set out to map out modalities for distribution.
He said the agency was working closely with the state Ministry of Health in the area of providing health care needs to the displaced people.
According to him, there are no fewer than 152,000 already displaced persons in eight local government areas from over 100 communities, and that the figure has increased with many more people trooping into the camps daily.
