By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
People that have been displaced through bandits and kidnapper’s attacks on their villages in Chikun, Kajuru and Birnin Gwari local government areas of Kaduna State, taking refuge at different Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps, have cried out to governments at all levels to help them with relief materials and also secure their communities so that they can return to their villages.
The displaced people from villages that include Malmo, Garu, Gbagyi Rumana and Badna in Birnin Gwari LGA, and Ungwan Boka, Araha 1 and 2 in Kajuru Local Government Area, have been displaced for about two years now, while those from Birnin Gwari and parts of Chikun LGA are still at the Ungwan Zwahu IDP camp in Goningora, those from Kajuru LGA have started going back to their destroyed villages.
However, speaking on Sunday when officials from a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Resilient Aid and Dialogue Initiative (RADI), took food and clothes to them, the IDPs said, though they ran away from their communities when attacks started from 2019, but would happily go back if the abandoned communities are fully secured.
“We want to go back to our farms, instead of waiting like beggars for people to come and bring food to us,” said, a father of five from Malmo village.
Speaking at both IDP camps, co-founders of RADI, Reuben Buhari and Alheri Magaji, who led other volunteers to share out relief materials to 100 IDPs at the Goningora camp and 110 at the Rimau centre, said the plight of the IDPs requires urgent help from the government and public spirited individuals.
“This is the harmattan season with all its attendant discomfort and these people you see are in dire need. Though they would go back to their destroyed villages if they can be secured, but their urgent need now is food, clothing and proper shelter from the elements. What we in RADI have been doing for two years with these vulnerable people is trying to meet their urgent needs,” said Buhari to newsmen.
