The United Nations High Commission for Refugees UNHCR in Nigeria has called on the international community to urgently provide additional support for the Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria.
In a Press Release made available to media houses, UNHCR’s Country Representative Chansa Kapaya stated that the number of refugees from Cameroon has now passed 70,000, and nearly 80 per cent of them are women and children.
He said their dreams and plans were disrupted by violence in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon where a conflict between secessionist Non-State Armed Groups and the army displaced people from their homes since 2017.
He added that UNHCR recently confirmed killings, abductions, forced evictions and other forms of violence, with armed groups attacking schools and hospitals in the region
According to Kapaya, the rising food prices, the economic hit of COVID-19 and the refugee influx, needs are on the rise with serious risks of gender-based violence and negative coping mechanisms such as begging and survival sex, adding that the support by UNHCR is increasingly falling short.
He said not less than US$97.7 million is needed to respond to the needs of a total of some of the 78,000 refugees and asylum-seekers of different nationalities and to IDP needs.
He however said that so far, not even half of the amount has been received, hence calling on donors and development agencies not to forget Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria who have been forced to flee their homes to seek safety and save their lives.
He commended Nigeria for its progressive open-door approach to the refugees stating that it is on its way to becoming a champion in implementing the Global Compact on Refugees saying that the most pressing needs of the refugees are food, shelter, improved health care and education as well as livelihood opportunities.
The Cameroonian refugees arrived in Nigeria’s Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Benue, Enugu, Cross River and Taraba States and got registered by UNHCR, together with the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and IDPs, many in hard-to-reach rural areas.
The Cameroon Anglophone regions crises took a heavy toll on civilians, with renewed attacks against schools and a spate of incidents involving improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and extrajudicial killings documented which began in late 2016.
The attacks resulted in the escalation in the nearly five-year conflict between government security forces and armed separatists which has displaced more than 700,000 civilians and forced another 63,800 across the border to Nigeria
