Fresh 6,000 Nigerian Refugees Flee to Chad—UN

January 22, 2019
Fresh 6,000 Nigerian Refugees Flee to Chad—UN

By Dipo Olowookere

The United Nations has raised an alarm over the alarming rate thousands of Nigerian refugees are seeking safety in neighbouring Chad.

At a briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, spokesperson of UNHCR, Charlie Yaxley, said citizens of Nigeria have been forced to leave their homes due to a new upsurge of violence in north eastern part of the country.

It was said that an estimated 6,000 refugees, mostly women and children, have fled Nigeria’s restive Borno State since December 26, 2018, when clashes erupted between Nigerian government forces and non-state armed groups in Baga town, near the Chadian border.

Many of the refugees paddled across the lake to arrive in the Chadian village of Ngouboua, located on the shores of Lake Chad, 20 kilometres from the Nigerian border. It takes three hours for the crossing.

According to testimonies gathered by the UN teams, refugees are fleeing in fear of their lives after threats of retaliation and intimidation following militant attacks.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the Chadian authorities are carrying out registration and pre-screening of new arrivals to evaluate the needs for assistance. An overwhelming majority of the new arrivals are women and children, with some 55 percent of them being minors according to initial registration data of the global body.

Yaxley said efforts are also underway by UNHCR to move arriving refugees away from the border areas, due to security concerns and after a government request.

“So far, we have relocated some 4,200 refugees to the already existing Dar-es-Salam camp 45 kilometres away. The camps already hosts some 11,300 Nigerian refugees who have arrived since 2014.

“We are racing to provide timely shelter and other assistance to those arriving, including the most vulnerable. Currently, new arrivals are hosted in collective shelters. UNHCR is distributing relief items including blankets, mats and mosquito nets and refugees are getting hot meals.

Inside Nigeria, the same clashes have also forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee their homes, with more than 30,000 people arriving in Maiduguri, stretching even further beyond their limits the capacities of existing camps already hosting internally displaced people.

“People are in need of humanitarian assistance, notably shelter, food, water and sanitation. UNHCR is also following up on the fate of some 9,000 Nigerian refugees who were reported as forcibly returned from Cameroon last week. Refugees had fled across the border into Cameroon when militants attacked and ransacked the small border town of Rann in Nigeria’s Borno State on January 14, 2019,” Yaxley said at the briefing.

Dipo Olowookere

Dipo Olowookere is a journalist based in Nigeria that has passion for reporting business news stories. At his leisure time, he watches football and supports 3SC of Ibadan.

Mr Olowookere can be reached via [email protected]

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