Doctors without borders decry humanitarian situation in Benue

Doctors Without Borders also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)  has decried the humanitarian situation in Benue state and expressed disappointment in the response in the state.

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The MSF Project Coordinator, Benue Project, Mitch Rhyner  expressed this disappointment at the sidelines of a photo exhibition held by the organization during the weekend in Makurdi to mark the 50th anniversary of the MSF, titled “50 Years of Humanity”.

Doctors Without Borders also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare.

Rhymer said it was improper for all attention to be focused on the North East while a state like Benue was also facing dire humanitarian challenges.

He said: “We are very disappointed with the humanitarian response in Benue. We feel that many displaced people are not receiving the services they should; the very basic services.

“At the Ortese Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs camp, with 11,000 IDPs in Guma Local Government Area, LGA, those people have been there for 10 months now and they are still living in very extreme conditions among the kind of the worst conditions for displaced people or refugees you can think of.

“Most of them are living in rudimentary tents made of mosquitoe nets, small plastic sheeting and sticks for the frame. They are exposed to rain, sun, to wind and to dust and other actors are not stepping in.

“Another example is in Gwer West LGA. There is a village called Agagbe,since the middle of last year there was series of attacks and violence that drove displacements between Agagbe village and the Benue River; the people fled to Agagbe town and they have been there since the middle of last year. And there have been recurrent attacks.

“At the beginning of this month we visited there to do an assessment. We found out that people were again staying in primary schools, staying in abandoned police station and also a number of different buildings that were given by the local community and by the church that operates a school there.

“Doctors Without Borders focuses on healthcare mostly, that is our specialty. We expect other humanitarian actors to act and cover other needs, and in many cases that has not happened in Benue state.”

While commending the Benue state government for putting in place a Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) to tackle the humanitarian crisis in the state, the Project Coordinator said, “we are happy that there is a HRP. But we must know that a plan is one thing but action has to follow.

“Sure there is a plan but who is going to support it, where are the resources going to come from to help the people in need? And there are many people in need in Benue state.

“So that is one side of it, another side is that the humanitarian donors, the international donors are not providing or giving enough attention to the crisis in Benue state.

“I think in 2018 there was an influx of some funding to the state to respond to the displaced persons crisis but since then it seems that UN agencies are not receiving or getting funding from donors to work here in Benue state.

“The case is that humanitarian donors’ focus is the North East despite the fact that there are needs in places like Benue and the North West.

“So we are also appealing to the donor to address the needs in Benue and enable the organizations here, the NGOs, the UN agencies to do more and help the people in need as it is demanded of those donors agencies and also the humanitarian organizations here.”

On MSF intervention in Benue state, Rhyner said, “We first responded to displacement in Logo LGA in 2018 after the escalation of the herder-farmer violence led people to flee to Ugba and Anyiin.

“Since then, we’ve conducted activities in four other LGAs, providing primary healthcare to some thousands of patients. We’ve drilled boreholes, conducted a cholera response, established shelters, and delivered food and non-food items.

“We’re currently helping the State Ministry of Health, MoH, respond to a Measles outbreak. We’ve enjoyed partnership MoH, SEMA, and other humanitarian and state organizations during these activities.”

MTO/Vanguard