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Nigerian refugees arrive on Lake Chad islands in Niger
after fleeing attacks in Doron Bagga in Borno state, Nigeria. Source: UNHCR (These same people are now being relocated)
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Niger has
evacuated thousands of Nigerian refugees sheltering from Boko Haram fighters on
Lake Chad's Karamga island, a military official told Reuters on Tuesday, as the
armies of four west African nations battle to quash the Islamist militants.
A regional governor in southern Niger said last week
that the refugees should leave after Boko Haram fighters killed scores of the
country's soldiers and civilians during a dawn ambush on the island on April
25.
The executive secretary of the State Emergency
Management Agency in Yobe state, Idi Jidawa, said that 4,000 displaced
Nigerians were in the process of being sent home.
Lake Chad's islands, which lie in dense swampland,
have been used by Boko Haram to mount surprise attacks on the bordering
countries: Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria.
The group, which is fighting to create a caliphate in
west Africa, has killed thousands and uprooted 1.5 million people from north
eastern Nigeria, many of whom have found relative security in neighbouring
countries including Chad and Cameroon.
The Nigerian refugees were already on their way back
home and would arrive at the frontier town of Geidam in Yobe state on
Wednesday, said Jidawa. A Nigerian security official, who declined to be named,
confirmed the news.
"Though NEMA (National Emergency Management
Agency) is in charge, we are assisting them in the exercise of profiling and
documentation," Jidawa said.
With
the help of regional armies, Nigerian troops have cornered Boko Haram fighters
into Sambisa Forest, where it has rescued nearly 700 women and children that
the group had held captive.
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