Nigeria, Aug. 18 -- When PREMIUM TIMES met 52-year-old Ioryue Mwuaga on a muddy road outside Aye-Twar in the Katsina-Ala Local Government Area of Benue State, he was returning from a neighbouring village where he had gone in search of food.

His nine-member family fled their ancestral home after repeated attacks by suspected cattle herders, and now squats in an overcrowded compound. "We left everything behind," he said, his voice low. "Life has become unbearable for us. My children wake up every day without food or shelter. We no longer have a place we can call home."

Just 18 kilometres from Aye-Twar, Hemban Tyav, a widow and mother of four, now stays with relatives in an uncompleted building that has no door. The family sleeps exposed t...