From Scholastica Hir Makurdi
A coalition of concerned leaders from Benue State has appealed to the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union to grant emergency asylum and protected status to Benue’s displaced persons.
The coalition made up of professionals, civil society groups, and religious leaders from the state, made this request in a statement tagged “Benue Under Siege: A Global Appeal to End Ethnic Cleansing and Displacement in Nigeria.”
Speaking at an international press conference in Makurdi, leader of the coalition, an advocate and Technology Entrepreneur, Gideon Inyom, said their call was not just a humanitarian request but a moral necessity and a legal responsibility, grounded in “The 1951 Refugee Convention (principle of non-refoulement), Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the OAU Refugee Convention (1969), and the Kampala Convention (2009) on the protection of IDPs in Africa.”
“We are gathered out of pain. Out of duty. Out of desperation. As sons and daughters of Benue State to draw the attention of the world to a silent war against our people. One that has displaced over 2 million individuals, according to the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).
“Since 2013, more than 6,000 lives have been lost in herdsmen-led attacks, with 2024 alone recording over 200 killings in the first six months, including mass atrocities in Guma, Logo, Kwande, Gwer West, Agatu, and Apa.
“The latest of these killings; the massacre of over 200 people in Yelwata, a small town in Guma LGA, has shaken us to our core. This is one too many deaths. One too many mass graves. It is on this final straw that we stand before the global community to say: Let this be the last.”
Inyom, who noted that the food basket is now under siege, lamented that the Benue people have been chased from their ancestral homes, their farmlands overrun, their villages reduced to ashes with their dignity stripped in overcrowded, makeshift IDP camps that offer neither food, nor safety, nor hope.
According to him, the camps are not a refuge but open-air graveyards of dreams where “children are growing up without classrooms. Women are giving birth without clinics. Entire families are trapped in cycles of trauma and hunger, while the Nigerian state, both federal and sub-national, looks away, or worse, punishes those who resist annihilation.
“Today, we issue a unified and urgent appeal to the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union: Grant emergency asylum and protected status to Benue’s displaced persons.
“These attacks are systematic, sustained, and strategic. They are designed not just to displace but to replace. We believe this situation amounts to ethnic cleansing.
We do not use this term lightly.
“Until our people can return to their homes in safety, dignity, and freedom, the international community must act to preserve their lives. Let them breathe. Let them live.”
He noted that the press conference is a first step and part of a broader, long-term campaign to launch diplomatic letters to international governments, mobilise humanitarian partners and UNHCR offices, submit legal evidence before international human rights bodies, and build a unified voice that speaks not with anger, but with truth.
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