By Miracle Adebayo
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| State of Mangu IDP camps and some survivors in the camp Image: Miracle Adebayo |
There is no food. IDP camps have collapsed. Children work instead of going to school. And survivors of violent attacks are scattered across communities, struggling daily to stay alive.
This is the reality facing internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Plateau State, years after coordinated attacks forced them from their homes. What was meant to offer safety and survival has increasingly become another layer of suffering.
Across communities in Barki Ladi and Mangu Local Government Areas, displaced persons live without consistent access to food, healthcare, education, or shelter. Some camps no longer exist. Others survive only in name. Victims who fled with nothing have been left to fend for themselves.
Widespread Displacement Amid Farmer-Herder(Fulani) Attacks
The violence that led to their displacement stems from long-standing farmer–herder conflicts dated as far back as 2011, which escalated sharply in 2023 into coordinated attacks on entire villages. Several people were killed, homes destroyed, and survivors forced to flee at night to neighbouring communities considered relatively safer.
Among those survivors is Peimen Micah from Garuwa village.
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| Peimen Micah-- An orphan child surviving outside the protection of Barkin Ladi IDP Image: Miracle Adebayo |
Peimenʼs story begins with absence. “I don’t have parents. They were killed,” he said.
“The crisis brought me to Barkin Ladi. Fulani men came with their cows and killed people. I watched them kill my mother and father while we were running away. They killed my father, hit him on the head with a nail, and threw him into fire. My mother was shot as we were escaping. I ran with my legs until I survived.”
He is one of many children orphaned by violence across Plateau State. Though officially registered under a recognised IDP camp in Barki Ladi Local Government Area, he now survives outside its protection—spending his days working in a mechanic workshop to learn a trade and returning at night to stay with relatives.
His situation reflects a wider pattern. Many survivors who escaped death during attacks on villages across the Barkin Ladi community are now scattered, making access to them difficult. They live separately to fend for themselves and search for food.
Peimen was only traced because of the fixed and identifiable location of the mechanic workshop where he works. Others, particularly children, remain undocumented and unseen.
David Napet, the coordinator of the Barkin Ladi IDP camp, explained that most displaced persons associated with the camp are women and children. The reason, Napet confirmed, lies in the struggle for food. Many men who survived the attacks are forced to return to their villages to farm, despite the risks, to provide food for their families.
“They are being killed, but they don’t have a choice,” he said. “They return only because there is no food. As a result, women and children are left behind to survive on barely anything, while many men hardly return due to fear of being attacked or killed.”
State Relief for IDPs: A One-Time Gesture To Permanent Struggle
When the IDP camps were first established, the Plateau State Government reportedly distributed relief materials across recognised camps. Mr. Philip Same, a disaster and victims’ supervisor in Barkin Ladi, confirmed he visited about five IDP camps in 2023. Some received relief materials—an intervention he described as the first and last provided by the state government.
Since then, more than five IDP camps around Barkin Ladi have collapsed.
Although the local government still identifies the COCIN RCC premises as an IDP camp, Napet explained that displaced persons were later distributed across the community to prevent deaths from hunger, as no feeding arrangements or basic amenities were provided.
“We no longer have a central place for IDPs due to government laxity,” he said. “When the crisis happened, Reverend Ezekiel moved the IDPs to his residence, which also serves as a church administrative building around Christmas Eve 2023. It later became inconvenient. SEMA, in collaboration with NEMA, provided some mattresses and food. Since then, nothing.”
As feeding became increasingly difficult, community members began raising funds to rebuild houses in some affected villages and encouraged men to return home to farm. Women and children were left behind. Many children dropped out of school, while others were taken in by neighbours. Some children now work at tin-mining sites to earn money for daily survival.
What is playing out in Barkin Ladi IDP camp is not an isolated case. In Mangu Local Government Area, displaced persons still reside in a camp located at the Pilot Science Nursery and Primary School, surviving largely by chance.
An elderly man in the camp described how he makes local wooden sticks, fetches firewood from the bush—walking for more than an hour—and sells them for between ₦500 and ₦1,000.
“When I don’t have strength, I don’t eat,” he said.
“Back home, I used to sell up to ten bags of maize, groundnuts, and beans. Here, I am suffering and hungry.”
A visit to the Mangu IDP storehouse revealed empty shelves, containing only used clothes and some medical supplies, with no food items available.
Matthias Sohotden, the Mangu IDP camp coordinator, confirmed that apart from the intervention from the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, earlier this year, no state government relief has reached the camp since 2023. He said the First Ladyʼs support covered about 500 IDPs across Plateau State, with approximately 200 beneficiaries from Mangu and nothing has come from the state itself.
Meanwhile, it's a different case in Barkin Ladi Camp. The coordinator, Napet revealed that the camp received nothing from the relief materials. “We do not even know where the materials went. There was a time when certain relief funds were reportedly shared through village heads, yet none of it reached the IDPs here in Barkin Ladi, ” he clarified.
Awareness Without Action: Government Officials Speak as IDPs Continue to Suffer
Here, Philip Same noted that the state government is aware of the conditions of displaced persons and has collected essential documentation, but has failed to act.
In his words, “Fifteen percent of intervention should come from the local government, 35 percent from the state, and the rest from the federal government,” he said. “But everyone is waiting, and the IDPs are suffering.”
Even more, Hon. Simon, Chief of Staff to Barkin Ladi Local Government, acknowledged that Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Bokkos, Mangu, and Bassa local government areas were the most affected by the crisis. He said the local government lacked the capacity to rehabilitate victims, citing losses exceeding ₦1 billion.
While he shared that Barkin Ladi benefited from the relief materials donated by Mrs Tinubu, this account contradicts statements from the IDP coordinator in Barkin Ladi, who insists that no such materials were received.
“I can categorically state that the Barkin Lardi IDP camp received nothing from the donation made by the President’s wife. We do not even know where the materials went. There was a time when certain relief funds were reportedly shared through village heads, yet none of it reached the IDPs here in Barkin Lardi. ”
Desperate Calls for Resettlement Amidst Neglect and Struggle for Survival
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| Baba Samuila Damwesh- an elderly man fetching local cooking stick as a means to survive the day Image: Miracle Adebayo |
Village head, Yerima Jelum of Gudum community in Mangu, revealed that he buried ten displaced persons in one weekend due to hunger and hardship.
“We are not lazy people,” he said. “If we are returned home within two weeks, we will feed ourselves.”
Mothers like Planan Jane William and Patricia Atang, displaced since 2023, appealed for food, access to education for their children, and resettlement to their communities.
Despite commendations for infrastructural development in Plateau State, the condition of internally displaced persons raises serious concerns under Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, which guarantees the right to life, and Nigeria’s obligations under the Kampala Convention on the protection of internally displaced persons.
With adequate security, accountability, and sustained intervention, affected communities can be restored. Until then, survivors like Peimen Micah remain alive—but abandoned.