No fewer than 5,500 persons were displaced after the July 7 attacks on nine villages in Barakin Ladi and Riyom, Plateau State, the International Committee of Red Cross and Nigerian Red Cross have said.
No fewer than 100 persons were said to have been killed when suspected Fulani herdsmen invaded the villages.
Senator Gyang Dantong and the Majority Leader of the state House of Assembly, Gyang Fulani, were killed on July 8 in Maseh village, Riyom while attending the burial for the victims of the previous day’s raid that claimed many lives.
But the ICRC said 25 villages were attacked.
In a statement in Jos on Wednesday by Head of the ICRC in Jos, Julia Unger, the organisation said, “The violence that took place on 7 and 8 July between the mainly livestock-herding Fulani and the farming Berom communities in Riyom and Barkin Ladi near Jos caused dozens of casualties and forced more than 5,500 people to flee their homes. Over 25 villages were affected.”
The statement said both the ICRC and the NRC had been assisting the displaced persons who had taken refuge in schools and community halls.
The statement added, “People left their homes and ran to safety with only the clothes they were wearing. They need everything to survive in this kind of situation,
“They have urgent needs in terms of food, water and basic household items. A curfew has been imposed in the affected areas to quell any further violence, and the security situation remains unpredictable.”
The ICRC said it had so far distributed one month’s food rations (including rice, beans and cooking oil) along with blankets, buckets, soaps and other essential items to over 2,800 displaced persons in the areas.
The organisation said it had also provided 10 temporary sanitary facilities, and it is in the process of installing two hand pumps to improve their access to water.It added that the operation would continue until all displaced persons received all the supplies they needed.
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