JESUSEGUN ALAGBE reports on the plight of orphans in Internally Displaced Persons camps in Plateau State, where Fulani herdsmen-farmers conflict has led to destruction of homes and farmland, as well as displacement of thousands of people

Vivian Yusuf struggled to calm herself down on a hot Thursday afternoon in late November 2018. She appeared dejected and confused; her teary face expressed an immeasurable pain she was passing through.

Around 8.30pm on June 23, 2018, she was at home with her family in Gana Ropp, a farming village in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Plateau State, when armed herdsmen invaded the community and started murdering the villagers.

Apart from Gana Ropp, several other villages in different local government areas of the state – namely Riyom, Mangu, Bokkos and Jos South were attacked on the same day by the militia who reportedly wielded weapons such as axes and guns.

By the end of the attacks, which took place in villages including Xland, Gindin Akwati, Ruku, Nghar, Kura Falls, Kakuruk and Rakok, over 300 people had reportedly been killed by the assailants.

Hundreds of houses, hectares of farmland and other properties were also said to have been destroyed by the militant herdsmen, whose mission, according to the survivors, was to sack the residents from their villages in order to acquire land for their cattle.

Yusuf lost her parents to the attacks that night. But for her elder sister who took her by the hand and made them jump through one of the room’s windows, she too might have been murdered by the attackers, who brutally shot at anyone in sight.

“I won’t ever forget that day in my life, how they invaded our home and shot my parents dead for no reason,” the 10-year-old cried as she spoke with our correspondent.

“It was my elder sister that grabbed me and said we should run for our lives. We jumped through the window in the room. Our parents couldn’t escape; they were in the living room, where the attackers first entered.”

After escaping from the attackers, Yusuf said she and her sister ran several miles into the bush, where they met with other runaway villagers. There they all hid until the following morning, hoping that by then the invaders would have left.

By 7am on Sunday, Yusuf said some soldiers came and led them out of the village.

A few days following the massive displacement of villagers from their homes, the Plateau State Emergency Management Agency set up several Internally Displaced Persons’ camps for about 38, 051 persons.

Since then, Yusuf has found herself living in one of such camps – the Geosciences IDP camp in Anguldi-Zawan, Jos South Local Government Area, jam-packed with over 3,000 women and children.

“Life here is boring. Thinking of my dead parents makes me sad every day. I don’t know if I will ever get over the thought,” Yusuf said, weeping. “They were my life, always telling me they would love to see me become a medical doctor and wife someday. Now that they are gone, they will not see me achieve great things.”

Another teenager from Gana Ropp, Yohana Jerry, also lost his parents to the June 23, 2018 attacks and since then has been living in the Geosciences IDPs camp.

“They killed my parents. My father was a farmer and planted maize, beans and Irish potatoes. The attackers also destroyed all his farms,” Jerry said.

The poor boy looked distressed, worried that he had also not seen his siblings since after the attacks.

“Everyone ran from the house in order to escape from the attackers. I don’t know if my siblings were killed by the Fulani herdsmen. I don’t know their whereabouts,” he cried.

Jerry said he would love to become a soldier someday – to fight for the country and protect vulnerable citizens like him.

He said, “If there were people protecting us, the attackers wouldn’t have gained entry into our village, let alone kill us. This must not continue; some people must take responsibility for other people’s safety. I would like to be part of those people.

“The only thing I could escape with when we were attacked was the shirt I’m wearing now. Here in the camp, I can’t sleep; I wish I was a soldier with a gun to protect my family from the intruders.”

Just like Jerry, 11-year-old Timothy Paulina did not know what fate befell her siblings during the June attacks, fearing that they might have been killed by the militant herdsmen.

She was with her grandmother in her residence, while her two sisters were with her parents when the attacks occurred. Her grandmother was butchered and she later learnt her parents were also shot dead. But she had not heard anything about her sisters.

“I don’t know where my sisters are. I hope they are not dead like my parents and grandma, so that I could at least have some family members left. Why would some people delight so much in killing my parents?” Paulina asked angrily. “I feel pained and I wish my parents’ and grandma’s killers were killed too.”

Before she lost her parents, Paulina said her mother wanted her to become a medical doctor in the future so that she could help other people to live.

“I will keep my mother’s dream alive, but I want to go back home soon to see if my sisters are there,” she said.

At the IDPs camp in Heipang, Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Mariam Williams, 18, from Palang, Riyom Local Government Area, said the herdsmen killed her parents and her father’s friend who had paid a visit to them on the day of attacks.

“Three Fulani men entered our house and carried out the attack. My siblings and I were lucky; we jumped out through the window and ran to the bush,” she narrated.

“They also destroyed my father’s farms. If someday I return home with my siblings, I don’t know how we would be able to feed ourselves.”

Susannah Yakubu, a teenager whose parents were also brutally murdered, said she would do everything possible to become a nurse someday.

Jude Joseph, a 12-year-old from Haya, Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, said all he had left in his life were his two sisters.

“The herdsmen burnt our house and killed my parents. My grandmother wasn’t shot at, but when she inhaled the gunpowder, she fell and died,” he said. “I believe those who killed my parents should also be killed.”

Esther Hahhaipang, 12, had her parents shot dead in her presence, but was spared by the attackers.

“I don’t know why they did not kill me. Instead, they asked me to run away. They ought to have shot me dead too and let me join my parents,” she said.

Isaac Dambwaram, from Riyom, said he narrowly escaped the attackers. But her parents could not.

“My brothers and I ran as soon as we heard gunshots. We saw many people running away too. I miss my parents a lot and I don’t know how I would survive,” the 12-year-old said, sobbing.

Brutal killings, massive displacement

Propelled by desertification, insecurity and the loss of grazing land to expanding settlements, the herdsmen-farmers conflict has led to the massacre of more than 1,300 people between January and June 2018 alone, according to a recent report by the International Crisis Group.

The report stated that security was a key challenge for President Muhammadu Buhari, as the country fought Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East and herdsmen crisis in the Middle Belt.

It said, “Tens of thousands have been displaced. From January 2015 to February 2017, at least 62,000 people were displaced in Kaduna, Benue and Plateau states; in the absence of Internally Displaced Persons camps, most seek shelter in other poor, rural communities thereby depleting already scarce resources.

“Now claiming about six times more civilian lives than the Boko Haram insurgency, the conflict poses a grave threat to the country’s stability and unity, and it could affect the 2019 general elections.”

In the report, the ICG urged President Muhammadu Buhari to “prosecute perpetrators of violence, disarm ethnic militias and local vigilantes, and begin executing long-term plans for comprehensive livestock sector reform.”

As of May 2018, a coalition of churches in the North, under the aegis of the Tarayar Ekklisiyoyin Kristi A Nigeria (meaning Hausa, Fulani and Kanuri Christians), put the number of orphans and widows as a result of herdsmen killings in the Middle Belt at 20,000.

“There is an increase in the number of orphans and widows because of the killings everywhere and it keeps rising almost on a daily basis,” the coalition’s president, Dr Caleb Ehima, said.

Demanding justice for children orphaned as a result of the herdsmen killings, an activist, Revd. Fr. John Damian, said, among others, he expected the government to have awarded scholarships for the orphans so as to avert a future crisis.

“Without proper education and training, some of these children will join kidnappers, robbers, militants and will in turn start terrorising the society,” he said.

The activist echoed a similar call by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, which states that “all children have the right to quality education, health care and protection.”

The President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, did not respond to request for comments as calls and text messages sent to his phone were not responded to.

However, in September 2017, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, promised that the Federal Government would soon find a lasting solution to the farmers-herdsmen crisis.

“We understand very well that the issue of pastoralist/farmers clashes go beyond Nigeria issue. Other nations like Ghana, Togo and Benin also suffer from a similar issue,” he said.

“We are not just solving a national issue. We are solving a regional and global issue. Whatever solution we get here, we would also link up with our neighbours in West and Central Africa to ensure a lasting solution.”

Hunger, sickness among children in IDP camps

The coordinator of one of the IDP camps at Heipang, Mr Iniya Maka, said there was a huge problem feeding the children due to scarcity of resources, a situation he said had led to some of them suffering from different forms of ailment.

“Sometimes we have raw food, but we don’t have the ingredients to cook. We are also in the dry season and these children get sick often, which is why we request for help from the government and humanitarian groups,” Maka said.

“We have limited materials to take care of the kids; we lack mattresses, bed clothes and blankets to keep the children warm.”

Maka, however, acknowledged that some humanitarian organisations, including the Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières (also known as Doctors Without Borders), as well as some churches, had been providing certain relief items.

“We are about 2,500 in this camp and our hope is that before this year ends, we will return home. Living in your own home in hunger is better than living in a place that is not your home in surplus,” he said.

As it was in the IDP camp at Heipang, so it was at the Geosciences, where the camp leader and President of the Gashish District Development Association, Mr Francis Chong, decried that some of the refugees had become beggars.

“Some of the children usually fall sick but there are no drugs to administer to them most times. Feeding the children is a challenge. A lot of times, we are given raw food like rice, but we have no ingredients or firewood to cook,” he lamented.

“A bundle of firewood that we use in this camp costs about N30,000 and we have consumed over 42 bundles since June 2018 and yet we have not received any money from the government.”

Chong said the camp had accumulated hospital debts and did not know when they would be settled.

“Some of the sick children were administered treatment on debt. We have a lot of agreements with hospitals. We just want to leave here and return to normal life,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Plateau State Government has said the displaced persons will soon return to their homes.

The state Commissioner for Information, Mr Yakubu Datti, told our correspondent that the state was among the beneficiaries of a N10bn resettlement fund approved by the Federal Government to rebuild communities affected by the farmers-herdsmen crisis.

“Our goal is to see all the displaced persons return to their villages as soon as possible and we are working towards that. We are working with the Federal Government to see that those whose homes were destroyed were rebuilt before they move back,” he said.

Lost childhood

A child advocate in Jos, Plateau State, Ms Priscilla Pam, said looking at the faces of orphans as a result of the herdsmen-farmers conflict would make anyone weep for Nigeria.

“You could sometimes see the bitterness in their hearts. Would they ever be able to forgive and forget what happened to them?” she asked.

“I hope the government would reintegrate them into the society, albeit when it safe to do so. Some of the kids sometimes say they don’t mind going back to their homes to be killed.

“Their parents are gone, so it makes them wonder what they are still doing on earth. Peace is essential for these children to fulfil their potential. They are losing their childhood.”

A psychiatrist at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, who runs a non-governmental organisation that renders mental health care to the IDPs in Plateau State, Dr Moses Audu, said if care was not taken, some of the children might grow up with resentment and anger, which could make them to be dangerous to the society.

He said, “Some of them are filled to the brim with anger, looking for the slightest opportunity to avenge the killing of their parents and siblings. They have given up on life and don’t know what to do. At the slightest provocation, they might kill someone if care is not taken. They are not afraid of death. They don’t care whatever happens.

“Some of them would tell you that 17 members of their families have gone, so what are they doing here? We try to do trauma healing for them, encouraging them to move on with life.”

Audu said some of the children were also showing signs of depression and suicide, asking the government to quickly reintegrate them into the society.

He said, “If these children were not attended to, they could suffer from mental illness, I can assure you. They are depressed. Some of them have suicidal tendency which we have been trying to manage. Some have traumatic disorderliness.

“Our care is just a short-term measure. The main measure is for them to be re-established with their communities. They want to go back home and be resettled.”

In the meantime, the Secretary-General of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Mr Alhassan Saleh, has denied that Fulani herdsmen are behind the crisis on the Plateau and other parts of the Middle Belt.

“There are powerful people somewhere instigating this crisis and making it look like the Fulani herdsmen are behind it,” he said. “I’m telling you with all sincerity that these killings are political. The police should investigate and bring the perpetrators to book.”

The spokesperson for the Plateau State Police Command, Terna Tyopev, declined our correspondent’s request for comments.

“I am not comfortable speaking with someone I don’t know,” he said on the telephone.

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