NAN – The Plateau State Emergency Management Agency has said 70,000 Internally Displaced Persons are currently taking refuge in the state. The SEMA Director of Administration, Mr Biser Longnam, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos on Thursday that the IDPs were from the Northeast states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
Longnam said some of the displaced persons were from Nasarawa and Taraba states, who left their homes because of communal clashes.
“We have 70, 000 IDPs currently in the state, 36,000 of them are taking refuge at different locations in Plateau North senatorial district.
“Some of the IDPs are camping in Namu in Quan’Pan Local Government area and other places in the Southern part of the state,” he said.
Longnam, however, said the state government could no longer continue to cater to the IDPs in the camps because of dwindling resources.
The director appealed to corporate organisations, philanthropists and others to support the government in catering to the IDPs. Longnam commended Rotary International, which recently donated some relief materials to IDPs.
“It is through humanitarian gestures like this that we will be able to assist the IDPs in the state.
“We appeal to organisations of like minds to assist the IDPs to alleviate their sufferings while they wait for the return of peace in their areas,” he said.
The director said the state government had been assisting the victims with foodstuffs, toiletries, clothing and drugs to mitigate their sufferings.
Longnam also said the agency had made arrangements with the state Ministry of Education so that children in the IDPs’ camps could be absorbed into schools.
