Pastor Barnabas looks out over hundreds of tightly-packed makeshift tents, sprawling in every direction. This camp, with its appalling conditions, is home to thousands of people.

“Each one you see here… we are all Christians,” says Pastor Barnabas. “We are here because of violence.”

Pastor Barnabas, his wife and five children have lived in this informal camp for internally displaced people (IDPs), in Benue State in northern Nigeria, for four years. Along with everyone else, they’ve been driven here by persecution.

“Politicians don’t talk about it, the news doesn’t care about it, nobody talks about it,” says Pastor Barnabas. “We are remaining in darkness. How would you feel to be forgotten?”

Life in the camp is unbearably hard. The space inside Pastor Barnabas’ tent is smaller than a double mattress, so some of his family must sleep elsewhere. The men go out in search of food, but they risk attack. There’s no running water or toilets. No school. “People are losing their hope in God because of the situation they are in,” says Pastor Barnabas.

But people are here because life outside the camp is even worse.

Pastor Barnabas fled home after Fulani militants raided his farm. His brother and sister-in-law were killed, and Barnabas still carries injuries from a machete attack.

“I lack words,” said Pastor Barnabas. “My prayer is that God will intervene. Our eyes and our hope are on Him. I believe a day shall come when we will live a good life. God will restore back.”