Violence and insecurity continue to force people from their homes in northeast Nigeria, where new waves of displaced are arriving in remote towns of Borno State. Nigerian refugees are also being forcibly returned from Cameroon.
Over 11,300 people have arrived in Pulka, close to the Cameroonian border, since January, and this has brought the total population of the town to more than 42,000. The increase of the town’s population by one third is placing further pressure on already overstretched resources to care for the displaced.
In Banki, another remote town close to the Cameroonian border, MSF witnessed Nigerians who had sought safety in Cameroon being returned to their country by the Cameroonian military on several occasions in 2016 and 2017.
“We had been living in Kolofata (Cameroon) for more than a year and one day they just decided to send people back to Nigeria without explanation,” explains a Nigerian refugee in Banki.
“We did not ask them to return us to our country: they forced us. We didn’t have a choice.”
Patients in Pulka also told MSF how they had left Cameroon for fear of being forcibly pushed back.
In the isolated town of Rann, people continue to arrive on a daily basis and the town’s population has grown by at least 10,000 in the past three months. In Dikwa, a town in the northeast of Borno, more than 2,000 newly displaced were registered in the last two weeks of March alone.
“Large movements of populations continue almost daily, due to attacks by Boko Haram, military operations and people searching for food and basic services,” explains Himedan Mohamed, head of mission for MSF in Nigeria.
Read more
 |
| Access to drinking water used to be a very big problem before the arrival of MSF in Banki, but the situation has now greatly improved with several water points provided by the organisation. |
In Banki, another remote town close to the Cameroonian border, MSF witnessed Nigerians who had sought safety in Cameroon being returned to their country by the Cameroonian military on several occasions in 2016 and 2017.
“We had been living in Kolofata (Cameroon) for more than a year and one day they just decided to send people back to Nigeria without explanation,” explains a Nigerian refugee in Banki.
“We did not ask them to return us to our country: they forced us. We didn’t have a choice.”
Patients in Pulka also told MSF how they had left Cameroon for fear of being forcibly pushed back.
In the isolated town of Rann, people continue to arrive on a daily basis and the town’s population has grown by at least 10,000 in the past three months. In Dikwa, a town in the northeast of Borno, more than 2,000 newly displaced were registered in the last two weeks of March alone.
“Large movements of populations continue almost daily, due to attacks by Boko Haram, military operations and people searching for food and basic services,” explains Himedan Mohamed, head of mission for MSF in Nigeria.
Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment