In this report, Arinze Chijioke looks at how sustained herder-farmer crisis in Benue State is threatening food production in Nigeria.

Inside Tse Yandev, one of the unofficial Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Benue State, which is ‘home’ to over 5,000 people, Rebecca Atonka sits on a wooden chair with her hand resting on her chin, her eyes weary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbEZy1dVBMs

In January, 2018, Atonka fled her home with her children after herdsmen attacked her communtaity, Torkula in Guma Local Government Area of the state.

A day before the attack, she had been working with her husband and children in the farm when a group of herdsmen carrying guns walked past them. They did not say anything.

Unknown to her, the herdsmen were making plans to attack Torkula. Like others in Torkula, with a predominantly farming population, Atonka’s family returned home from the farm tired and exhausted.

“We were asleep when we started hearing gunshots everywhere in the middle of the night. They came to our house and started shooting everywhere. Some of us escaped. But some were killed,” she explains.

In the aftermath of the attack, Atonka lost her husband. Their house, along with everything inside, was burnt. She also lost her farm and all the crops she planted. She only ran away with her children.

The family of farmers never had any issues feeding before, but now it is hard for them to feed themselves inside the camp. Each time any of them falls sick due to mosquito bites and exposure to rain, she is helpless and just resigns herself to fate. The only time she gets to buy food is when she does chores for families living close to the camp.

“What was most hurtful for me was the killing of my husband,” she says. “I never imagined I would live without him because we were happy that night before we went to sleep.”

Before Atonka fled to the camp, she and her children ate whatever they wanted. She worked tirelessly with her husband on their farm, which was the only business they had. But now, everything has changed.

Atomka is just one of many who have lost family members and everything they owned and are taking refuge in several IDP camps, including Tse Yandev, which houses 847 households, located in the North Bank area of Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

Wave of attacks in Benue

Since 2013, attacks by herdsmen over land and grazing areas have escalated in Benue State. The state has an economy that is driven by agriculture and it produces large quantities of yam, rice, bean, cassava, sweet-potato, maize, soybean, sorghum, millet, sesame, and cocoyam.

In January 2018, Benue held a mass burial for over 80 people killed in different attacks in the state between December and January.

Data from the National Security Tracker shows that between 2013 and June 2021, nearly 1,500 persons were killed in the state from 148 attacks by suspected herdsmen, leading to the massive destruction of property, including farmlands in 15 out of the 23 local government areas of the state.

The year 2018 had both the highest number of attacks, 54 and the highest number of deaths, 450. Between January and June 4, 2021, at least 122 persons were killed from 17 attacks in the state.

Executive Secretary of Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) Emmanuel Shior, a doctor, says over 600,000 persons have been displaced within this period. In 2018, there were 400,000 IDPs in the state.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-herder-farmer-crisis-in-benue-threatens-food-production-in-nigeria/