THE United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) reports people are
continuing to flee the crisis in northeastern Nigeria’s Adamawa, Borno,
and Yobe states. It said the refugee exodus is now spreading to
Cameroon, where more than 3,000 Nigerians have fled.
UNHCR said thousands of Nigerians began crossing into Cameroon one
week ago. The new arrivals tell aid workers they fled a confrontation
between the Nigerian army and Boko Haram rebels.
UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said the fighting occurred just 10
kilometers from the Nigerian-Cameroon border. He said most of the
refugees are women and children.
“Primarily, the refugees are being looked after by the host
communities and … churches are also part of the networks providing help
to people as they immediately come across,” he said.
“As with all of these crises,” Edwards added, “the worry for us is
when you have refugees in areas very close to the border, which might be
volatile, might be unsafe. We are looking at moving people to other
locations. But, in terms of their current accommodations, most people
are living in the community.”
The UNHCR said refugees also are continuing to arrive in neighbouring
Niger, adding to the more than 6,000 refugees that already are there.
Edwards said most of the new arrivals in Niger are women and children
coming from rural villages across the border and from the towns of
Maiduguri and Baga.
“On 11 June, gunshots were heard in Malam Ftouri, a village on the
Nigeria side, close to the border, prompting the population of the
village to flee across the border. They traveled by foot, by
motorbike,” he said. “They found refuge with host families just across
the border. Hundreds of new arrivals have also been reported further
north of Diffa, according to local authorities.”
Aid workers on the ground report some displaced people from Nigeria
are returning home after a few days in Niger. Others, they said, are
shuttling between the two countries depending on the security situation
in Nigeria.
Chad, a third possible destination for Nigerian refugees, has
officially closed its border. As a consequence, the UNHCR reports no
Nigerians have arrived there besides the 155 refugees who came last
week-Nigerian Tribune
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