The perennial communal dispute between the people of Aladja in Udu Local Government Area and Ogbe-Ijoh in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State over some parcels of land is seriously taking its toll on the residents of both communities.
The inter-communal crisis has left thousands of villagers hungry as they can no longer go to work on their farmlands following renewed violence over a matter, which has been raging since 1990.
Although the state government under the administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has since intervened and set up a committee to look into the remote causes of the dispute and come up with lasting solutions to the lingering crisis, the people of the two feuding communities have been lamenting that they risk starving to death if the government fails to act quickly.
They have asked the government to urgently come to their aid as farming, which is their main source of livelihood, has continued to suffer serious setback since the inhabitants can no longer go to their farms for the fear of being attacked by the other side.
A visit to Aladja, one of the warring communities, to assess the situation of things on the ground revealed a shocking situation as the town had almost been totally deserted, with many residents fleeing the community to escape being caught in any reprisal attack.
The few people, who summoned the courage to stay behind have done so probably because they have no other place to take refuge. But most of the residents in this category are now suffering from malnutrition, because of lack of adequate food.
They have been warned not to venture into their farms, because they may be attacked by the people from the other side of the community, and the result of this is the hunger now ravaging both communities.
This precarious situation has left a lot of families on both sides in appalling conditions as they have continued to suffer under the harsh situation they have found themselves.
Looking at most of them, one could see hunger and hopelessness written all over their faces and there are fears that unless a drastic action is taken to mitigate their suffering, many of them run the risk of dying of hunger, rather than from the violence attending the inter-communal crisis.
The attention of this eye witness was drawn to a particular family as he was going round the Aladja community. Mrs. Grace Michael was sitting outside her one-room apartment that morning with her four children, washing some clothes.
Her youngest son, who is about nine months old, and her third daughter, were looking malnourished with their stomachs protruding, their heads looking bigger and their eyes sinking deeper inside their sockets.
On a closer look at the children, it was discovered that though they looked ill, they were actually suffering from malnutrition. Michael is an indigene of Aladja and is married with four children that her family can now scarcely feed.
Her husband, who owns a farmland in the community, can no longer go to work in his farm, his only source of livelihood.
To make ends meet, he decided to take up menial jobs in a Tipper garage to feed his family. But his meagre earnings from that cannot even put food on the family’s table as the crisis has also chased the sand diggers in the area out of business.
“My son has been sick for a very long time now, but thank God he is recovering. I have bought some drugs for him and he has been receiving treatment,” Mrs. Michael said. But taking a closer look at the child, he’s far from his mother’s claim.
MRS. GRACE MICHAEL WAS SITTING OUTSIDE HER ONEROOM APARTMENT THAT MORNING WITH HER FOUR CHILDREN, HER YOUNGEST SON, WHO IS ABOUT NINE MONTHS OLD, AND HER THIRD DAUGHTER, WERE LOOKING MALNOURISHED WITH THEIR STOMACHS PROTRUDING, THEIR HEADS LOOKING BIGGER AND THEIR EYES SINKING DEEPER INSIDE THEIR SOCKETS
He looked very frail, his breathing was fast and not regular. When prodded further, the nursing mother, who also looked emaciated, probably as a result of hunger, said, “I and my husband do not have anything to do because of this fight that is going on between our community and Ogbe-Ijoh people.
We cannot go to our little farm to work again because of this fight. Farming is what we do to survive and for some times now we have not been able to go to our farms to work.
I am afraid that we will starve to death if this fight does not end.” Mrs. Micheal is just one out of the many other residents that have become victims and are at the receiving end of the inter-communal feud between the two neighbouring communities.
The State government should act fast and proffer immediate solutions to this crisis so that peace can be restored to enable the people of Aladja and Ogbeh-Ijoh to continue to go about their legitimate business to eke out a decent living.
