Although President Paul Biya of Cameroun has marked 35 years in office in apparent pump and pageantry, all is certainly not well in the polity. The Office of the UN High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, in Geneva, has said that more and more Anglophone Cameroonians are fleeing a violent crackdown in their country and seeking asylum in Nigeria.
The UN refugee agency is concerned about reports of the arrest of more Cameroonians in Nigeria. It has urged the Nigerian authorities to stop harassing aliens forced to flee from the persecution in their country of origin. The spokesperson for the agency, Ms. Aika Kitidi, who briefed newsmen on the matter said, “We also want respect to the principle of no forced returns”.
However, the UNHCR warned that without more funding, the situation of the fleeing Cameroonians and that of their Nigerian hosts, would become even more desperate. According to Ms. Kitidi, Anglophone Cameroonians began fleeing violence in October 2017 and continue to pour into Nigeria’s Cross River, Taraba, Benue and Akwa-Ibom states. “In total, over 20,000 refugees have been registered in the area. Women and children account for four-fifths of the population.”
She declared that a recent assessment by humanitarian groups showed that most of the asylum seekers entered Nigeria with food that would sustain them for only three days. The official worried that most of them take only one meal daily in the midst of borrowing money, cutting food portions or saving food only for children.
Ms. Kitidi said the refugees were facing a grim situation, sleeping in open places and having to drink water from streams, ponds and other unsafe sources, because of inadequate facilities. “Essential relief items, such as clothing, blankets and plastic sheeting could only reach less than 25 per cent of them,” she explained.
The UN refugee agency is also worried that as the rainy season comes fully in Nigeria, the health conditions of the refugees, which have continued to deteriorate could be worsened by the cold weather.
