Overcrowding in Benue IDP camps

Overcrowding remains a major problem at two camps in Benue State, central Nigeria, that host people displaced by recent communal clashes in nearby Nasarawa State, emergency relief officials said on Tuesday. The camps at Daudu and Ukpiam, on the outskirts of the Benue capital, Makurdi, are said to be holding at least 20,000 people each. The IDPs are being accomodated in primary schools in the two communities. Those still in these camps are mostly people who have not been able to find relatives or friends to take them in, a senior official of the Benue State Ministry of Information told IRIN. “But the accommodation in the camps are certainly inadequate and we are worried at the difficult conditions the people, particularly women and children, are having to endure,” the official said. The director general of National Emergency Management Agency, Remo Olowu, told ‘Thisday’ newspaper that there had been more pressure on Benue State since the communal clashes in June because of the huge number of displaced Tiv people, estimated at over 50,000, who took refuge there. Tivs are a majority in Benue and a minority in Nasarawa. “Even though there might be some shortcomings here and there, I want them (Benue State) to improve on it with our support,” she said.