UNHCR asks Cameroon to reconsider plans to expel 100,000 Nigerian Boko Haram refugees

CAMEROON has been asked by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to rescind a planned decision to evict over 100,000 Nigerian refugees currently seeking sanctuary in the country.

Since 2009, terrorist sect Boko Haram has been waging a war against the Nigerian state, which has resulted in a refugee crisis, forcing thousands of people to flee from Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states into Cameroon. At the moment, Cameroon is currently home to more than 370,000 refugees, including some 100,000 from Nigeria, according to the UNHCR.

Wanting to be rid of the refugees, Cameroon is planning to deport them and the UNHCR has said it deplores this move adding that it puts the lives of the refugees at risk. According to the UNHCR, on January 16, 267 Nigerian refugees, who had crossed into Cameroon in 2014, were forcibly returned.

Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said: “We are gravely concerned for the safety and well-being of all these people. This action was totally unexpected and puts lives of thousands of refugees at risk.

"I am appealing to Cameroon to continue its open door and hospitable policy and practices and halt immediately any more returns and to ensure full compliance with its refugee protection obligations under its own national legislation, as well as international law.”

It regretted that at dusk on January 14, militants attacked and ransacked the border town of Rann, about 10 kilometres from the Cameroon border. During that attack, at least 14 people were reportedly killed and an estimated 9,000 fled to Cameroon.

Meanwhile, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Edward Kallon, has said the deadly attack interrupted aid delivery to some 76,000 internally displaced people in Rann. He added that the attackers looted and destroyed a medical clinic, humanitarian supply warehouses and aid workers’ accommodations, as well as burnt down the nearby market and camp shelters.