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By Adebayo Animasaun
*Sad tales of neglect, uncertainty in the IDP camps
At dusk on Friday, June 22, 2018, residents of Berom communities like elsewhere and as usual, went to bed with hope of waking to a pleasant weekend.
They were all oblivious of the tragedy ahead. Preparations for the weekend fun had been sealed and exciting for the serene Berom nation. But the unexpected happened. By 1.00am on Saturday, June, 23, 2018,15 Berom communities came under heavy attacks by suspected Fulani killer herdsmen: Shootings, mass killings, arson of monumental proportions.
And at the end of the ensuing pandemonium over 200 deaths, were counted. The aftermath of the mayhem is still fresh in the minds of the affected victims and indeed the entire state.
While some people may have moved on with other things in life, however, the situation is different for a majority of the victims in Berom community.
For them, the recurring and avoidable violence has sucked away all that they looked up to in life. Even if they so decide to leave the past behind them and move on like many have preached they do, the overbearing scar is a constant reminder that this is not how they started life and had envisaged to live it.
Many have been eternally separated from their loved ones, parents have had to bear the agony of burying their children, houses, cars have been razed, farms destroyed, churches, mosques and other sacred meeting places and officials were also not spared in the wave of violence.
When TNG crew visited the camp that housed the Internally Displaced Persons, in Geosciences, Anguldi-Zawan, Jos South LGA, it was all a story of feeling unwanted in one’s own father’s house. The victims asked over and over in dejection, ‘Are we really Nigerians?’ Does the government hear of our plights at all? Why are we treated like we brought this tragedy upon ourselves?’
The feelings of dejection and rejection were clearly written on the faces of both the young and old scampering for a second chance at life in the eight IDP camps scattered across Hepang, Barkin Ladi and the state capital, Jos.
On sighting the TNG crew, the victims heaved a sigh of relief saying they had lost hopes of reconnecting with the outside world for any possible assistance.
Many of them flashed back at the ugly incident that turned them to fugitives in their own fathers land with tears and shaky voices.
They confessed that the perpetrators are known to them. Some said their neighbours also joined in the killing. Both young and old had horror stories to tell the visiting TNG crew.
I lost my husband, now left to cater for five children all alone – 36-year-old widow
For 36-year-old Helen Titus, life has not been the same since the gruesome murder of her husband. She recalled with nostalgia how her family once lived together in harmony without the slightest idea of an impending danger that will later claim the life of her dear husband.
“On that fateful day, 23rd June, 2018, Fulani herdsmen attacked our village, they came around 1am when everywhere was quiet and everyone was asleep.
They invaded and destroyed our farms, killed my husband and i was not even allowed to see his corpse till he was buried. Life has been cruel to us since then,” Titus said shedding tears.
Explaining how they found their way to the IDP camp, Titus said: After the brutal attacks that left several dead and properties destroyed, the state government set up about eight IDP camps across the affected local governments to cater for the victims. I had earlier been at the IDP camp in Jos South before relocating here with my kids.
A close observation by the TNG crew at the IDP camp showed that the environment was hygienically poor and meals served were highly deficient nutritionally.
Titus corroborated this when she said: Life has not been easy ever since we got here, they feed us three square meals per day but we don’t get to eat to our satisfaction because we are quite many and the food has to reach everyone.
The crisis as expected took a negative toll on schooling in the affected areas. After close to two months, pupils are yet to return to their classrooms for learning.
“The crisis has affected our children’s education so there is no school for now,” Titus said.
I watched helplessly as my four-year-old daughter was shot in the head – Bereaved father
No parent ever prays to witness the death of their children, let alone bury them with their own hands.
However, the abominable happened in Plateau during this crisis.
45 year old Emmanuel Dido did not only lose his farm produce and car, but also his daughter.
“They killed my small daughter and they burnt my car. When they invaded my house, I had twenty bags of maize and potato in store but the herdsmen stole all,” Dido said wiping the falling tears with a piece of cloth.
Dido said the memory of the gruesome murder of his innocent daughter by the Fulani herdsmen still lingers in his memory.
“I’m a Barber, I was a driver before i started the barbing job, and I also rear pigs.
I’m in pain each time I think of what happened, it makes me angry but i’m praying to God to help me forget everything about the tragedy.
Anytime I’m sleeping, I always think about my daughter, what flashes back to my memory is how they killed her and how i went to carry her corpse; it pains me all the time.
She was killed in my neighbour’s room, I went to carry her dead body there.
The killer herdsmen shot her in the head,” Dido tearfully.
Dido recalled how life had been smooth for them and suddenly like a flash in the pan, everything came to a stand still after the deadly attack.
“…they came that day around 10am, the Fulanis killed one woman in the bush, we heard the sound of the gunshot, from there it all started and before we knew, they rounded up the whole village.
The herdsmen started shooting sporadically in the village, there were some among them that we lived together like the muslim brothers, some helped us to escape while some others pointed to our houses to identify us to the killers.
The killers were mostly visitors, they were shouting ‘Allahu Akbar” while they were killing, even the ones we stayed together joined in the killing.
We know the people that killed, they are Fulani herdsmen and together with our boys inside ex-land, the hausa boys.
Once I leave the IDP camp, i will return to Hepang.
I won’t return back to Ex-land, my house was not burnt but they burnt my father’s house.
They also killed my younger brother’s 10-year-old child.
Life at the IDP camp is unbearable, it’s better for us to be in our houses.
Right now, i manage with the relations in Jos to sleep, we only come to the IDP camp in the morning, then we leave at night,” he said.
TNG however observed that the victims were not afraid of starting from the scratch. They all attested to forgiving their assailants while leaving revenge to God.
When asked about what next after camp, Dido said: “That one is by the grace of God, only God will know what to do, if anything happen, if we leave it in the hands of God, God will show us the way to do anything.
Now, we will start a new life.
I will forgive but i will not forget all that happened, that’s the reality.
I will never forget that day in my life.”
Scare of disease outbreak in IDPs
After the mayhem, the state government did well to set up emerging camps for the displaced persons –IDPs. A laudable effort though conditions of hygiene and inadequate feeding, Medicare threaten the viability of some camps.
Similar to this is the several unfulfilled promises made to the victims by the federal government.
Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo during his visit to Plateau state, gave assurance to the victims of the crisis that relief materials will be supplied to them in abundance.
Attesting to the poor state of medical/personal hygiene in the camp, the camp director, Mr. Alfred Gyang, told TNG crew that quiet a number of people in the camp tested positive to HIV, Malaria, Typhoid and other infectious diseases.To make the situation more appalling, Gyang lamented there were no drugs or medical personnel available to care for the ailing campers, thus risking outbreak of multiple diseases amongst people in the camp.
“We have quite number of challenges in terms of healthcare, you know this is an IDp camp, we don’t have medications, and we have outbreak of Malaria, Typhoid, cholera, cough and catarrh. We also discovered because there are series of doctors who have come in to take thesis.
The outcome of the thesis, we discover that there are people who are HIV positive though there are established cases before now.
We have about nine HIV patients in the camp and there’ve not been able to access their medication, of course is a challenge we are trying to overcome.
We don’t have drugs here, Living Faith Worldwide brought some drugs… I.D Gyang is a member of Federal House of Rep. representing Barkin Ladi constituency also brought medication with his team.
The few drugs he brought is what we are using to administer them and we are running out of drugs”.
Camp statistics
Geosciences, Anguldi-Zawan (IDP Camp)
Jos South LGA, Plateau State.
Total number of IDPs – 2674
Age (0-5) 499
Age (6-18) 1094
Household 754
Men 1262
Women 1412
Pregnant/Breast-Feeding Mothers 156
Widows 64
Orphan 36
HIV Patient 9