13,000 Refugees Back From Cameroon

Nigerian refuges

Federal Government officials and those of Adamawa and Borno States yesterday visited the over 12,000 Nigerian refuges repatriated by the Cameroonian authorities at their temporary camps in Mubi, Adamawa, preparatory to their screening for rehabilitation. The officials were led by Alhaji Sani Sidi, the Director General of National Emergency Management Agency.

Sidi said the government delegation was in Mubi to officially receive the refugees, assess their conditions and provide for their basic needs.

The Nation report continues:

They are expected to be moved to designated Internally Displaced Persons Camps in Yola.

“While in the camps, you will undergo screenings in order to identify the areas where you come from,” Sidi told them.

Ninety-five per cent of the victims are natives of Gamboru, Ngala and Bama in Borno.

The deputy governor of Borno, Alhaji Zanna Mustafa, also addressed the IDPs, saying the state authorities would move its people to Maiduguri after screening to enable them link them up with their families.

He advised them to expose any member of Boko Haram living in their midst.

About 80 per cent of the IDPs are women and children.

Boko Haram: NEMA Receives 10,000 Cameroon Returnees

• To evacuate 3,000 Borno residents

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has received about 10,000 who fled to Cameroon from communities in Borno and Adamawa states. Speaking in Mubi while receiving the returnees, NEMA’s Director General, Alhaji Sani Sidi, said they were forced back after Cameroon closed the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Garoua.

Sidi informed that they started arriving through the border post in Sahuda, Mubi South after being screened by the Nigerian Immigration Service and the Nigerian Army.

The returnees, according to him, are part of the 13,800 from the Nigerian Immigration Service at the border post, out of which 650 have been transported to Borno State.

The rest, he said, are still at Malkohi Internally Displaced Persons camp in Yola, Adamawa state.

Also, about 3,000 Borno indigenes deported from Cameroon following Boko Haram attacks along the Gamboru axis are to be evacuated to Maiduguri.

A statement by the zonal information officer of NEMA, Abdulkadir Ibrahim said Sidi and the Deputy Governor of Borno state, Alhaji Zanna Mustapha have already left for Mubi to facilitate the return.

It reads: “The refugees are presently camped at the border of Nigeria and Cameroun. Over 2,000 IDPs have been transported to safer locations in Mubi while 600 of the refugees have been transported back to Borno.

“3,000 refugees are still at the border undergoing registration formalities before relocation to Mubi for onward transportation back to Borno.”