Benue State Government yesterday said about 500 people have been killed in Benue State by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen in the last six months, with about one million others displaced since the outbreak of the herders’ and farmers’ crisis in the state. Out of the number of displaced persons, the state’s Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has registered over 180,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), which it has been catering for in eight camps; while over 500, 000 other IDPs are currently taking refuge wherever they find space.

The state’s Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Lawrence Onoja (Jnr), who disclosed this at a news conference in Makurdi, said the killings have surreptitiously foisted enormous humanitarian challenges on government shoulders.

He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his prompt response to the request of the state government to upgrade and replace the military Exercise Ayem A Kpatuma, with a full-scale military operation. Onoja said since the commencement of the military operation in May, the spate of attacks have been drastically reduced with the invaders chased away in several communities, a development he said has enabled some IDPs to return to their homes which have already been reduced to rubble and their means of livelihood completely destroyed. “We commend President Muhammadu Buhari for responding to our call to upgrade and replace the military Exercise Ayem A Kpatuma with a full-scale military operation.

“Our call was necessitated by the need to flush out the bloodthirsty herdsmen militia who has invaded several communities in the state since January 1, carrying out barbaric killings of innocent men and women, children and the aged as well as engaging in a scorched earth policy of destroying everything in sight.”

He commended all security agencies involved in Operation Whirl-Stroke particularly troops of the armed forces for their effectiveness in curtailing the menace of killer herdsmen in the state, noting that the feat is being achieved at great expense with some of those involved paying the supreme sacrifice with others suffering various degrees of injuries. (New Telegraph)