With no fewer than 14 internally displaced people’s(IDP) camps, deadly attacks and killing of its citizens almost on a daily basis, the population of Benue farmers, Nigeria’s food basket state has been seriously decimated and food production and supplies disrupted. This apparently puts the nation on the road map to hunger and starvation, especially as the persistent crisis there has taken the lives of the productive population and defied solution.
Again, last Friday into Saturday morning, at least 150 persons were reportedly killed in Yelwata, a sleepy, agrarian community in Benue State, according to Amnesty International. Yelwata in Guma Local Government Area produces large quantities of yam, rice, maize, cassava, and soybeans consumed in the far Northwest and southeastern parts of the country. Overtime, however, many of the farmers have either been killed or displaced, allegedly by the marauding Fulani bandits. This raises concerns on the incidence of impending hunger in Nigeria.
Similar incidents of widespread killings and displacement of farmers are also reportedly going on in Plateau, Borno, Adamawa and other states in the country, which limits movement, making farming quite difficult and risky.