Plateau Attacks: 1000 IDPs “stranded” in Bokkos

At least 1000 people displaced by Sunday’s “herdsmen attacks” in Central Nigeria’s Plateau State are currently stranded.

The IDPs have for two days now slept in open-plan nonresidential buildings provided by Churches in Bokkos town.Church of Christ in Nations, COCIN Bokkos Central has the highest number of IDPs from from the attacked Ruboi, Marish and Kwatas villages.

“From records collected this morning (Wednesday January 29, 2020), they are more than one thousand, strictly women and children,” a Pastor of COCIN Central Bokkos, Philemon Mayat told MK.

The Church has since Monday provided food and mats to the IDPs but not much is available to go round, Pastor Mayat said.

Only 31 displaced women are in Christ Apostolic Church Bokkos Central, with slightly over 20 children.However, they have about the worst humanitarian problem.

“We only grinded maize for them to make paste and drink yesterday and today.”The mats we have been able to mobilize are not even enough for them and among them there are sick people,” a local Pastor, David Gideon said in a telephone conversation.

Another 54 women and children from Machambe village are also housed in ECWA Bishara 1, Bokkos.According to the senior Pastor of the Church, Rev. Daniel Moses, food remains a major challenge.”Our biggest concern is what to feed these people with,” he said.

The Chairman of Bokkos Local Government Area, Mr. Yusuf Machen however wants the villagers back to their homes instead.

“The more they leave their homes vacant, the more they expose them to the invaders,” he said in a telephone chat.Most of the villagers however lost their houses and other properties in the destructions that trailed the attacks.