Benue endangered with influx of refugees, IDPs – Ortom

By Adeleye Kunle

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has decried the rising number of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, and the high influx of refugees from Cameroon in Benue, saying the State is now endangered.

He maintained that it was not an easy task for the State to manage the refugees and IDPs and urged the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to intervene to cushion the burden.

Ortom, who made this known Monday when he received an Inter-Agency Technical Committee delegation from the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development at the Benue Peoples House, Makurdi said, “We remain an endangered State as far as issues of refugees and IDPs are concerned in our country Nigeria.”

He stressed that since 2017, “the State has continued to witness influx of IDPs in the various official and unofficial established camps.

“On record, we have over 2 million IDPs in Benue State that have been profiled.”

He noted that the State currently hosts over 10,000 Cameroonian refugees who are taking refuge in Benue as a result of the crises in southern Cameroon.

“We have taken it as a responsibility of the government to provide minimum comfort for the Cameroonian refugees”, he said, adding that the State Government had continued to prevail on the host communities to allow the refugees to settle down