Amuwa also told of the pathetic story of how two of the nursing mothers at the camp, Mercy Chahur and Adasho Deborah watched helplessly when their children fell sick and died one after the another due to lack of medical facilities in the area.
Therefore, he appealed to the federal and state governments, alongside non- governmental organisations and other charity-inclined Nigerians, to come to the aid of the people, especially the very vulnerable ones among them.
The IDPs spokesman also urged them to make efforts towards proffering a permanent solution to the challenges that IDPs were facing in the state and the country at large.
“It is even more pathetic to watch many of these expectant women give birth to their babies on bare floor in the classrooms and you can imagine the situation that the nursing mothers face with their new born babies.
The government at all levels should not ignore our plights. The IDPs need all the help they can get to survive the hardship they are facing at the various camps,” Amuwa solicited.
As a result of the consistent attacks in most Northern states in the country, the estimated number of Internally Displaced Persons in Nasarawa, Benue, Niger and Plateau states in 2023 alone has risen to over 500,000, based on figures collated from various local and international organisations.
Although the security situation in Nigeria has improved in parts of the country with the scale of attacks trending down, thousands of Nigerians are still being displaced from their communities by criminal gangs, bandits, and other terrorists.
In 2022, the International Organisation for Migration said over 3.6 million people were displaced in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe. But the trend is yet to be over as bandits are still hovering around many parts of the country and regrettably succeeding in their criminal act.
As of July 14, 2023, there were an estimated 18,751 internally displaced persons in Plateau State alone. This is based on a report by the Gideon and Funmi Para-Mallam Peace Foundation. The report also indicated that the IDPs were from eight local government areas of the state.
Meanwhile, speaking on what the federal government is doing to ameliorate the plights of IDPs in country, the spokesperson for the National Emergency Management Agency, Ezekiel Manzo, stated that the government has commenced an emergency intervention programme in some of the affected states.
He explained that the initiative would be expanded and implemented in all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“The interventions are many. For instance, NEMA has commenced the distribution of relief items under a Special National Economic Livelihood Emergency Intervention approved by the Federal Government for the citizens.
“The distribution has commenced in Taraba, Bauchi, and Gombe states, and it will cover the 36 states and the FCT for beneficiaries in communities affected across the country,” Manzo disclosed.
