U.S. Charity Equipping The Persecuted Snatches 35 Snake-Bitten Displaced from Death

By Mike Odeh James

(MAKURDI) The carpet viper strikes in darkness, small enough to hide beneath a sleeping mat, and its venom makes human blood forget how to clot.

In Benue’s displacement camps, it has company.

The Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM) has driven farmers off their land in a harvest-sabotage campaign TruthNigeria laid out in its Nov. 3 explainer, “Harvest of Fear.” Their families now sleep on bare ground in camps ringed by bush and tall grass. That is where the snakes live.

Name the Killers

Three species do most of the killing in Nigeria’s savanna belt, according to the Federal Ministry of Health.

The carpet viper, Echis ocellatus, rarely grows longer than two feet. Cornered, it rubs its saw-edged scales together to make a dry hiss – similar to the sound of fat in a pan – then strikes. The ministry says this one snake causes about 90 percent of Nigeria’s bites and 60 percent of its snakebite deaths. Its venom destroys the blood’s ability to clot. Victims bleed from their gums, from the wound and, in time, from within.

The puff adder, Bitis arietans, is its opposite: thick, heavy, patterned like dead leaves. It does not flee. It lies still, lets a barefoot child walk into range, then lunges in a blur. Its venom rots flesh, leaving survivors with swollen, blackened limbs and, too often, amputations.

The black-necked spitting cobra, Naja nigricollis, rears up and sprays venom into a victim’s eyes from several feet away, sometimes blinding them.

In the Benue valley, researchers have recorded as many as 497 bites per 100,000 people a year. Nationwide, the ministry estimates about 2,000 Nigerians die and roughly 1,700 lose limbs to snakebite annually. Worldwide, the World Health Organization counts up to 138,000 snakebite deaths a year.

A Boy, a Bite and a Prayer

Eight-year-old Isaac Utime and his family fled Guma County, a repeated target of Fulani Terrorists. Displacement nearly cost him his life when a snake bit him.

His father, a displaced farmer with no income, could not afford antivenom. All he could do was pray. A social media post about the boy reached Andy Nomsoor, a representative of Equipping The Persecuted (ETP), the U.S.-based charity founded by Judd Saul. Through ETP’s clinician, Dr. Martins Chuwan, Isaac received urgent treatment. He has since gone home.

Isaac is the 33rd snakebite victim ETP has treated free of charge in Benue since July, when the charity stepped into a gap that has quietly killed displaced farmers for three years. The total treated has now risen to 35.

Refuge Turned Trap

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) counted 464,543 displaced people in Benue in Round 18 of its Displacement Tracking Matrix. ETP sources put it above 3 million.

The Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) says it spent more than $120,000 (N160 million) treating displaced people for snakebites between March and September 2026.

At Agagbe camp in Gwer West County, leaders counted 12 snakebites in the first eight months of 2025. That September, a 14-year-old from the camp died in a Makurdi hospital.

A single dose of antivenom costs $135 to $190, and severe bites can require up to five doses, BusinessDay reported. For a family barred from its farmland, that price is a death sentence.

The Gap After Ortom

“Mortality was on the rise. So many young, promising lives were cut short, because they couldn’t finance treatment,” said Chuwan, who has managed snakebite cases for five years at Bishop Murray Medical Centre in Makurdi.

Chuwan said former Governor Samuel Ortom took direct responsibility for snakebite victims before and throughout his tenure. That support ended when Ortom left office in 2023.

“A lot of families lost wives, mothers. Some lost pregnancies,” Chuwan said. Those who scraped together money for a few vials were left in debt and hunger.

Two Lives at Once

In July, Nomsoor told Chuwan that ETP would bridge the gap. The charity has since paid in full for every patient it has taken on.

Chuwan recalled a pregnant woman who arrived two days after a bite to her right leg. She was bleeding and at risk of losing her baby. The bleeding stopped and the pregnancy was saved.

“Two lives saved at once. The family left with profound joy,” Chuwan said.

Hon. James Igbudu, who described Ortom as his former boss, phoned Nomsoor when his brother’s wife was bitten.

“By the grace of God, she recovered remarkably and was discharged within a few hours. We spent less than five hours at the hospital,” Igbudu said.

Law Awaiting Signature

The cure exists. Studies in Nigeria show antivenom protects more than 80 percent of carpet-viper victims from death. The challenge is getting it to the victims in time.

In August, the Federal Ministry of Health donated 100 vials of antivenom worth about $18,800 (N25 million) to Benue. At up to five vials per severe bite, that supply could cover as few as 20 patients.

On Sept. 24, the Benue State House of Assembly passed a bill providing free snakebite treatment in government hospitals. ETP has urged Governor Hyacinth Alia to sign it without delay. Until he does, ETP says it will keep paying.

“We did not begin this work to replace the government; we responded because lives were being lost to a condition that can be treated when help comes quickly,” the charity said.

In the camps, the vipers are still out in the grass. But for Isaac Utime, help meant walking out of a hospital alive.

Mike Odeh James is conflict reporter for TruthNigeria.

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