TheCable

The Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) says it has registered about 80,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) after the recent clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

Emmanuel Shior, executive secretary of SEMA, disclosed this in an interview with the NAN on Wednesday.

He said the displaced people are in four camps located in Guma and Logo local government areas, the councils where about 50 people were killed by suspected herdsmen.

The killings have been condemned by Nigerians, including President Muhammadu Buhari who ordered Ibrahim Idris, the inspector general of police, to relocate to the state.

Shior said the IDPs were at the government approved camps at Daudu, Tse-Ginde, Gbajimba all in Guma and Ugba in Logo local councils.

“At the moment, what we have done is the manual registration of the displaced persons, not the biometrics; and we have registered about 80,000 IDPs across the four camps in the state,” he said.

“We are likely to open more camps depending on the situation because we have started receiving IDPs from Nasarawa State who were displaced also as a result of the same invaders.

“But Governor Samuel Ortom has already mobilised the agency to take both food and non-food materials to the camps and we are doing same.”

He admitted that the agency was overwhelmed with the level of humanitarian services but said it would do its best to ensure that the IDPs did not live below the set standard.