Nigeria: Surviving pain and fear, women’s harrowing tales from camps in Benue

Violent clashes in northcentral Nigeria have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes in recent years. Many have settled in camps around Makurdi, the capital of Benue state. Living conditions in the camps are precarious and daily life is a struggle, particularly for women. After receiving reports of alarming levels of sexual violence against women and girls in the camps, teams from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) are providing survivors with medical and psychological care. Some survivors have shared their stories.

“He promised me that he would give me money and asked me to meet him at a house outside the camp,” says Iyua, a mother of six who lives in Mbawa camp, some 20 km north of the state capital Makurdi. Desperate to borrow money to buy food for her children, she had asked the man, who was an acquaintance, for help. “When I arrived there, he said he would help me only if I had sex with him. I refused, but he physically forced me,” she says. Following the sexual assault, Iyua sought treatment at MSF’s clinic in the camp, which provides care for survivors of sexual violence.

Benue state is an agricultural region in northcentral Nigeria, often known as Nigeria’s food basket, crossed by the country’s second largest waterway, the Benue River. In recent years, insecurity in northern Nigeria has forced many herders to move south into the north-central region, while climate change and environmental degradation have reduced the availability of fertile land. The enactment of a law in 2017 prohibiting open grazing led to the exodus of herders from Benue state who could not sustain their traditional way of life, leading to an intensification of armed clashes between herders and farmers. The resulting violence has displaced almost 400,000 people from their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration, with many settling in camps across Benue state.

Shiana moved to Mbawa camp five years ago with her older sister. She gave birth to two babies, but both died in early childhood. Since her early childhood she has been living with a disability. “I was asleep when someone knocked on my door at night,” she says. “The man promised to bring me something to eat, then he forced the door of my tent, as the lock was broken, and insisted on having sex with me. I refused and tried to push him away but he squeezed my arms and raped me.”

Shiana was sexually assaulted twice by men who forced their way into her tent taking advantage of her physical disability. “Last night again, a man came and tried to enter, but I woke up quickly enough and blocked the door from the inside; this happens regularly in the camp,” she says. Shiana has no means of earning money, but sometimes walks to a nearby market to pick up spilt grain from the ground, which she collects and sells.

A few tents away from Shiana lives Seember. Seember’s husband was a farmer who was killed in a night-time attack. “My husband was captured and shot when he tried to run out of the house,” she remembers. “He was lying dead on the ground when another man came and cut off his head with a machete.” Seember and her two children escaped and fled to Mbawa camp. In April 2023, she was working on a farm, harvesting crops with other women, when they were ambushed by five men – three with guns and two with machetes. The men discussed whether to kill them but decided to rape them instead.

“When I saw these men arriving in the field, I felt anger,” she says. “I thought of my husband´s death and thought it was my turn to leave this world, but I refrained from defending myself against the perpetrators so that I could remain alive to take care of my children.”

The rape left Seember unable to walk unaided. A relative brought her to MSF’s clinic in Mbawa camp, where she received medical care and mental health support.

Seember says that she feels very lonely without her husband and that, when she sists by herself, the disturbing memories come flooding back. Her teenage son Fanan does his best to comfort and distract her by making her laugh or plaiting her hair.

Iyua, Dooshima, Shiana and Seember are just four among thousands of women and girls living in camps in Benue state who have survived sexual violence. Without preventive action, MSF warns that the risks for women will continue to escalate.

“It is important to highlight that the social environment is not getting better,” says MSF project coordinator Resit Elcin. “There is a lack of livelihood options for displaced people, particularly for women, and protection and prevention efforts are barely in place. The situation is not improving.”

“Survivors of sexual violence, both in Benue state and across Nigeria, deserve access to free-of-charge and quality medical care and mental health support,” explains Resit. “Women and girls need access to services including safe housing and emergency shelter, legal assistance, and livelihood and financial support. The key to preventing sexual violence is to address people’s humanitarian needs and ensure that vulnerable people are safe within the camps.”

“Humanitarian and development organisations, both local and international, must work alongside the Nigerian authorities to ensure that medical and psychological support is freely available to survivors of sexual violence in Benue state and, more broadly, to support displaced communities regain their dignity and control over their lives,” says Resit.

MSF launched an emergency response to assist displaced people in Benue state in 2018, providing them with medical care, including sexual and reproductive healthcare and comprehensive care for survivors of sexual violence. In 2023, MSF teams in Benue treated more than 1,700 survivors of sexual violence.

*Names have been changed to protect patients’ identities.

**Throughout our intervention, MSF has primarily supported displaced farming communities and host communities surrounding the IDP camps. More must be done to understand the humanitarian-health needs of herding communities, and the impact of violence on their lives.

Dooshima was given a whistle at the MSF star clinic. This object is given to protect all the survivors who are living in a situation that is particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse. Photographer: Kasia Strek. Date: 14/12/2023. Location: Mbawa Camp, BenueShiana was sexually assaulted twice by men who forced themselves into the tent where she lives. She lives alone, with empty and destroyed tents around her. Photographer: Kasia Strek. Date: 15/12/2023. Location: Mbawa Camp, Benue

Farming field near Benue River, under the bridge leading to the centre of Makurdi. Areas the closes to the town are the safest to work and farm, as villages and fields even slightly further into the state risk being attacked by cattle herders. Photographer: Kasia Strek. Date: 14/12/2023. Location: Mbawa Camp, Benue

Iyua’s children grab oranges in a bucket that she sells in the camp. Her children are often around her when she works and peels fruits. Photographer: Kasia Strek. Date: 14/12/2023. Location: Mbawa Camp, BenuePeople working in a rice mill located at the entrance to Makurdi town, capital of Benue State, are sifting rice and separating grains. Photographer: Kasia Strek. Date: 13/12/2023. Location: Mbawa Camp, Benue

About Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is a global network of principled medical and other professionals who specialise in medical humanitarian work, driven by our common humanity and guided by medical ethics. We strive to bring emergency medical care to people caught in conflicts, crises, and disasters in more than 70 countries worldwide.

In South Africa, the organisation is recognised as one of the pioneers of providing Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) in the public sector and started the first HIV programmes in South Africa in 1999. Until today, the focus of MSF’s interventions in the country has primarily been on developing new testing and treatment strategies for HIV/AIDS and TB in Eshowe (Kwa-Zulu Natal) and Khayelitsha (Western Cape).

In Tshwane, we run a migration project, and we offer medical and psychosocial care to migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, who struggle to access public health services under South Africa’s increasingly restrictive.

Previously we offered free, high-quality, confidential medical care to survivors of SGBV in Rustenburg.

To learn more about our work in South Africa, please visit this page on our website (www.msf.org.za). To support MSF’s work: