{"id":68582,"date":"2025-06-19T14:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T14:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=68582"},"modified":"2025-06-19T14:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T14:25:10","slug":"benue-massacre-sparks-food-crisis-as-farmers-flee-border-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/06\/19\/benue-massacre-sparks-food-crisis-as-farmers-flee-border-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Benue Massacre Sparks Food Crisis as Farmers Flee Border Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Widespread fear and displacement have gripped farming communities along the Benue-Nasarawa border following the recent massacre of over 200 people in Yelwata, Guma LGA of Benue State.<\/p>\n<p>Suspected herdsmen attacks have forced thousands of farmers to abandon their farmlands at the peak of the planting season.<\/p>\n<p>Investigations show that farmers from Keana, Obi, Doma, and Awe LGAs in Nasarawa State are fleeing to urban centers for safety, leaving behind vital crops such as maize, yam, guinea corn, and cassava.<\/p>\n<p>In Keana, displaced farmer Tersoo Fatu lamented the sudden disruption: \u201cThis is planting season, but survival comes first. We\u2019ve left everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), camp at Kadarko Primary School is now overcrowded and poorly equipped, with IDPs lacking food, water, sanitation, and healthcare.<\/p>\n<p>Observers report that Tiv communities in Kadarko, Doma, and Lafia are overwhelmed by the influx of fleeing villagers, further straining limited resources.<\/p>\n<p>Simon Tion, a resident in Lafia, said over 10 Tiv-dominated villages near Yelwata have been deserted. \u201cThe attacks are deliberate. Farmers are being hunted,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n<p>With the farming season disrupted and agricultural activities halted, experts warn of imminent food shortages and inflation in the region.<\/p>\n<p>The situation has sparked urgent calls for intervention by government and humanitarian agencies to provide security, relief materials, and resettlement support for the displaced populations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata &nbsp; Widespread fear and displacement have gripped farming communities along the Benue-Nasarawa border following the recent massacre of over 200 people in Yelwata, Guma LGA of Benue State. Suspected herdsmen attacks have forced thousands of farmers to abandon their farmlands at the peak of the planting season. Investigations show that farmers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":68583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1724],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insecurity"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68584,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68582\/revisions\/68584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}