Camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) are a sad reality in many parts of the world that are racked with violence or natural disasters. Nigeria suffers both: incessant violence from Islamic militants and criminal thugs, as well as severe flooding and drought. There are an estimated 3 million people living in IDP camps in Nigeria, and 4 or 5 times that many across sub-Saharan Africa. Both the violence and the natural disasters force countless rural farmers off of their land and into IDP camps where they hope to find safety and food until they can return to their land. Unfortunately, there is no time table for making their land safe from violent perpetrators, or for restoring lands damaged by floods, nor for restoring the rains that no longer fall during the seasons that they are needed to sustain crops. People often exist in IDP camps for years, with little hope.
This is video from OpenDoors gives you a brief, inside look at one such camp in Benue State, Nigeria. Benue is due south of Plateau State, where the main AMEN training base is located at Gana Ropp village. There have been AMEN missionaries and relief efforts in Benue for years now. Recently a new AMEN mission base has been opened in Agatu, Benue State.
Nigeria is split up into 3 regions: the South is primarily Christian with far less persecution, and the North is primarily Muslim and increasingly so the farther north you are. The "Middle Belt" is considered part of the north even though much of it is geographically in the south half of the country. This is much like in America where Ohio is considered part of the midwest even though it is much closer to the Atlantic Ocean. The Middle Belt is a mixture of Christians and Muslims.
The OpenDoors video refers to Fulani militants which needs some additional explanation. The Fulani ethnic group comprises around 40 million people scattered throughout West Africa, but the greatest concentration is in northern Nigeria. The former president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari was Fulani. Fulani are almost entirely Muslim (99.8%), according to the Joshua Project, and so comprise a major unreached people group. Most are not militant and many live peacefully with Christian neighbors. But of the attacks that are recorded, most appear to be conducted by Fulani men and most are against Christian villagers, and church leaders. This brief video from YWAM can give you more details on the Fulani.
One of the main tribes in Benue State are the Tiv people. They often wear distinctive black and white striped cloth, which you may notice in a few times in the OpenDoors video. There is also a short clip on the STM website in which we listen to the stories of Tiv widows from Benue State during one of the B4G Widow's conferences. They were all widowed by the sort of attacks that are sending these people to IDP camps.
Finally, you may legitimately wonder why STM exists if OpenDoors and YWAM and other larger organizations are already working there. I would love to have a conversation about that, just drop me a note at jeff@sharingthemission.org.
STM continues to provide assistance to our many Christian brothers and sisters trapped in IDP camps by sharing in the efforts of B4G (Bege for Gobe) through financial support and prayer. These efforts include conducting regular Bible studies among the widows for their spiritual and emotional support, longer conferences for widows to help meet their physical (food, medical) and spiritual needs at critical times of the year, and providing food, shelter and education for some of the neediest children in the camps.
Below: Women sitting in front of their shelter at an IDP Camp in Manggu, Plateau State, Nigeria. Last spring, STM supporters provided thousands of meals in this camp and others through our Nigerian partners at B4G.
Photos & Video: ©Azigbo Dafe Samuel, ©AMEN, or ©Sharing the Mission - all used by permission. More info.