Zamfara IDPs lament ordeal in bandits’ hands

They stole our property, raped our women, left us HUNGRY HOMELESS

NO fewer than 13 communities in Gusau Local Government Area, Zamfara State, are almost desolate as their inhabitants are forced to flee by rampaging bandits, with thousands of them now living as refugees in other communities within and outside the state.

The displacement of more than 50,000 inhabitants of the affected communities is compounded by the absence of any official government IDP camp in the whole of the 14 local government areas in the state. No practical move is being made by any individual or organisation to ensure accommodation for the fleeing residents.

By and large, the internally displaced persons (IDPs)are abandoned to their fate and are now scattered around communities across the state, living in dilapidated buildings, abandoned school structures and even on their farmlands, exposed to all sorts of hardship and life-threatening danger.

Relief materials meant for the IDPs hardly reach the targeted beneficiaries because they are distributed at locations that are very far away from the abodes of the displaced persons. Most of the IDPs are based in locations where access to the distribution centres is difficult because without jobs or means of livelihood, raising the transport fare that would take them to the distribution centres is like extracting water from stone.

Only the Zamfara State Emergency Management Agency (ZEMA) has made audacious efforts to reach the IDPs in their various locations in remote areas, even at the risk of encountering dare-devil bandits in the process.

Homeless IDPs relive ordeal

For instance, displaced persons from Nasarawan Mai Layi, one of the worst hit communities and hometown of the immediate past Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, in Birnin Magaji Local Government Area, are scattered around various communities in Zamfara State.

The community head of Nasarawan Mai Layi, Alhaji Bello Wakkala, reckoned that more than 5,000 people fled the community on account of the devastating activities of bandits. Most of them, he said, had even fled Zamfara to seek refuge in other states.

A member of the community, Atiku Muhammad, who fled with other members of his family to Gusau, the state capital, lamented in a chat with our correspondent that he could not fend for his family because the motorcycle he was using as okada(commercial transport) was forcibly taken from him by bandits who knocked on the door and carted it away.

Also taken away by the intruders, he said, were the foodstuffs the family had just harvested and had estimated to last them till another harvest season. In Gusau, he said, he had nothing to do as a source of income to feed his family members. He said although the family had received some relief materials from both ZEMA and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), they were not enough to keep life going.

Another resident of the area, Abubakar Sani, said he has to flee because his father was killed and all his belongings were stolen. He said like most other residents of the community, he had to abandon everything and flee to the state capital to engage in any lawful activity that can assuage his hunger as well as those of his family members.

Malam Ibrahim Malam, a native of Nasarawan Mai Lafiya, who also fled to Gusau, said he and other family members had resorted to begging as the only way out of hunger and starvation.

‘They raped our wives, turned us into refuges’

Wakkala, the community head of Nasarawan Mai Layi, recalled that their wives were raped in some of the bandits’ attacks, on account of which they were compelled to seek refuge elsewhere.

He said: “The reason why we are worst hit by bandits is that we share boundary with Katsina State. We are most prone to bandit attacks because of the thick forest that makes Jibiya Road inaccessible.

“When they attack us, they come in large numbers and in military uniforms, with highly sophisticated weapons. We have no option but to leave our ancestral birth place.” Many observers believe that governments at all levels are not doing enough to cater for the need of the internally displaced persons across the state. Others believe that the plight of the IDPs is being used as a political tool by some people.

The First Lady of Zamfara State, Hajiya A’ishatu Bello Muhammad Matawalle, was quick to offer medical assistance to eight-year-old Mubashshir Hassan, who was critically ill and was admitted at the Federal Medical Centre Gusau where he is currently receiving treatment.

Mubashshir’s parents were among the people displaced by bandits in Mada community, Gusau Local Government Area. He had previously been admitted in the health facility about two years earlier when he was attacked by meningitis. But he had to be taken back home because of paucity of funds on the part of the parents. However, his condition was further aggravated when bandits attacked the community recently, forcing his parents to relocate from the community to live in an IDP camp in Gusau where Mubashir’s illness was aggravated by hunger and starvation.

Introduced to Mubashshir’s parents while at the FMC Gusau, the First Lady promised to take care of all the medical bills. But efforts made by our reporter to visit Mubashir in the hospital were rebuffed by the hospital’s management. They also told our reporter that they were previously reprimanded by the hospital’s management for granting NTA access to the boy.

Maimuna Muhammad Bajini, a native of Gidan Bajini in Birnin Magaji Local Government Area, said they had to flee their community because it was being constantly raided by bandits.

She said: “Bandits ransacked our community every day. The men had to run to the farms. They slept on top of trees in their farmlands. We were also forced to run to this place where 20 of us sleep in one small room in an uncompleted building.”

According to her, the bandits were on about 300 motorcycles every day. Even the police, she said, could not retrieve the corpses of their colleagues.

She lamented that during the elections, politicians brought trucks to their camps and provided the needed security to ensure that they cast their votes. She noted that while no attack was carried during the voting period, the politicians who returned them home abandoned them to their fate

“We now sleep at Yan Kara, about 30 of us. Men, women and children sleep in the same room. Some of us sleep outside. We are exposed to harsh weather, and when rain is falling, we are soaked by it.”

Other victims relive ordeal

Flanked by his out-of-school children, another refugee, Muhammad Saiti, a native of Birnin Magaji, said that he and other people in the makeshift camp sleep outside a building partly destroyed by storm.

Asked how they feed themselves, Saiti said: “We have to send our women and children to beg. We are new here and we don’t have any means of livelihood. Our children don’t go to school. They are forced to become beggars because of our misfortune.”

Saiti, who is also camped at Unguwar Kara in Gusau Local Government Area, under the watch of the community head, said they were in urgent need of help in addition to the assistance that was coming from the ward head of Unguwar Kara, saying, “He is just and ensures that we get what we are given.”

The ward head, Malam Ibrahim Mai Unguwar Kara, said there were more than 120 internally displaced persons made up of men, women and children, who were living in dilapidated buildings in his community. The buildings, he said, were already filled up.

Mai Unguwa said: “Some of the IDPs  in my community sleep in shops and some in the open market area. The problem we have is that provisions are very inadequate. We the ward heads in the state are not on salary. We would have assisted them more than we are doing now.”

He lamented that each time the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Zamfara State Emergency Management Agency (ZEMA) brought relief materials for the displaced persons, they never got to the targeted beneficiaries.

He said: “When they bring the materials and hand them over to us, we call the IDPs, show them the items and ask them to decide how they should be distributed. We do so because we usually don’t know how to start sharing them because they are inadequate.”

He explained that items that were shared by governors’ wives forum were nothing to write home about; a reason he said the distribution ended up in a fiasco and many of the IDPs ended up with wounds. He also noted that the relief items the the First Lady, Hajia Aisha Buhari, distributed under her Future Assurance Foundation, were bags of semovita, N70 sachets of sugar,  tins of tomatoes, a sachet each of seasoning and a packet of tea bags each.

The Executive Secretary, Zamfara State Emergency Management Agency, Engineer Sunusi Muhammad Kwatarkwashi, disclosed that there were more than 3,000 IDPs spread around Mada community alone.

Kwatarkwashi revealed that 33 bags of rice, 10 bags of millet, salt, clothes, mattresses and other items had so far been distributed in Mada community alone.

Kwatarkwashi commended the new governor of Zamfara State for visiting the Mada camp and donating the sum of N500,000 for the provision of the basic needs of the IDPs at the camp.