Benue State government has distributed food items to all Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the state, to cushion the effects of hardship faced by the inmates.
The Executive Secretary, State Emergency Management Agency, (SEMA), Mr. Emmanuel Shior who spoke to journalists during the distribution exercise said the food items, three trucks of rice and 5,000 cartoons of indomie will be given to those in camps and the ones in the communities.
He said the distribution which is done on the direction of the state Governor Samuel Ortom is a continuous exercise.
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According to him, the Governor had met with all humanitarian partners in the state where he expressed concerns over the teeming population of IDPs in the state and set up a committee to develop a Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), for Benue that will define various roles of humanitarian stakeholders in the state.
While lamenting that Benue has over I million IDPs currently, the SEMA boss said the state has also witnessed new attacks which has displaced more indigenes just as new IDPs have come in from Taraba State
He noted that beside the IDPs, state govt is also grappling with the burden of over 10,000 Cameroonian refugees in Kwande.
He therefore appealed to all Nigerians; home and abroad and to the international community to come to the aid of all peoples of concerns in Benue.
He commended the efforts of the federal government who has been providing for the IDPs through the office of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), and the Refugee Commission and appealed for more assistance.
He noted that the burden is still too high for the state government and called for more support to enable state government cater for the increasing number of displaced persons in the state.
