21 LGAs in Benue Overwhelmed by Insecurity, Crises, Says VSF

George Okoh in Makurdi

Victims Support Fund (VSF) has carried out the fourth round of distribution of food items to people displaced by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Nzaav, Kendev, Moor and Mbamar communities in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State.

Presenting the items, which included Garri, rice, soya beans, vegetable oil, salt, and palm oil last Monday at Jato-Aka in Kwande LGA, the VSF Chairperson, Toyosi Ogunsinji Akerele, said 21 out of the 23 LGAs in Benue State have been overrun by crises, making farming activities difficult for a lot of people in the state, even though as an agrarian state, the people are not able to farm, it is difficult for them to survive hence VSF relentless intervention.

She noted that Kwande shares boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon, and a lot of families in Kwande, even though are not in IDP camp, are indigent as a result of the crisis within and outside the communities.

“We are here for the fourth month of the victims support fund of Benue State Emergency Programme, which has been on since March 2022 as VFS response mechanism to supporting IDPs across the state. We are supporting between

700-1000 households in Kwande LGA today, which is a minimum of about 7-10 members in every household in the area,” she stated.

Ogunsinji lamented that Nigeria is grappling with an inflation rate of over 20 percent, and food inflation is over 14 percent because major communities of Benue, Taraba States and other parts of the North where farming is their mainstay are unable to farm. “So, food is scarce and a few people who have access to these food items are hoarding them and selling them at higher prices given that it’s not fully available as it used to be,” she said.

Responding, some beneficiaries, who spoke exclusively journalists, narrated their experience of hardship, and thanked VSF for sustaining the intervention.