The Nation Newspaper

Tag: UNHCR

  • UNHCR concerned as hundreds flee from Boko Haram

    UNHCR concerned as hundreds flee from Boko Haram

    The UN refugee agency yesterday said it was increasingly alarmed at the humanitarian impact of continuing violence in north-eastern Nigeria and stressed the importance of protecting civilians.

    Newly arrived refugees interviewed by UNHCR staff in Niger have spoken of atrocities on the islands and shores of Lake Chad in north-east Nigeria’s Borno State.

    “One woman described corpses strewn through houses and floating in the water. She said people feared staying even to bury their dead or find missing relatives. Others recounted fleeing a village shooting incident and said women and children were being kidnapped and taken away by unidentified assailants,” UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards, in Geneva, told reporters yesterday.

    The latest attacks are reported to have begun in mid-February and were continuing five days ago, Edwards said. “In all some 2,000 people have crossed into south-east Niger’s Diffa region over the past four weeks according to our partner, the International Rescue Committee,” he added. In addition to the attacks on Lake Chad, some of the new arrivals have come from conflicted areas near Borno’s state capital, Maiduguri.

    “UNHCR reiterates to all parties to the conflict in north-eastern Nigeria the vital importance of protecting civilians from harm,” Edwards stressed. The insurgency in the three north-eastern Nigerian states of Yobe, Adamawa and Borno has displaced more than 470,000 people inside Nigeria. Refugees arriving in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger are in addition to this.

    Since President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the three states in May last year, more than 57,000 people have fled to Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Some 17,000 of these are registered Nigerian refugees. The rest are nationals of the surrounding countries who had been living in Nigeria for decades.

    Niger , said the agency, has received the majority – some 40,000 concentrated in the Diffa region, a desert in the country’s eastern edge.

     

  • 43 Nigerians among those fleeing CAR – UNHCR

    The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said no fewer than 9,000 people, including 43 Nigerians, have fled to Cameroon in the last 10 days to escape violence in Central African Republic.

    A statement issued by the UNHCR spokesperson, Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba, in Geneva, said during the period, 8,762 people of various nationalities had crossed into the town of Kentzou in eastern Cameroon.

    According to the UNHCR spokesperson, the number of new arrivals who have crossed into eastern Cameroon include 4,764 Central Africans, 3,424 Chadians, 1,497 Cameroonians and 10 Malians.

    “This brings the number of CAR refugees in Cameroon to more than 20,000 since the CAR crisis began,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the UNHCR as saying in the statement.

    The UN refugee agency quoted the new arrivals as saying that they fled because of confrontations between the former Seleka and anti-Balaka militiamen in the capital, Bangui.

    They said the fights were also in other towns in the north- west, such as Bour, Baboua, Beloko and Cantonnier.

    It said some also fled from intense fighting in the areas of Berberati, Carnot, Baoro and Gambala while others fled because of fear that the anti-Balaka militiamen were advancing toward their areas.

    Lejeune-Kaba said UNHCR had also approached various embassies to take charge of their citizens and added that Central Africans registered by UNHCR as refugees were mainly women and children.

    They include 43 pregnant women and 89 people living with disability and in need of special attention.

     

  • Boko Haram forced 6,000 to neighbouring countries – UNHCR

    The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said nearly 6,000 people have fled the northern parts of Nigeria due to the activities of Boko Haram to neighbouring Cameroon and Niger in the past 10 days.
    UNHCR in its reports made available at the UN Headquarters in New York on Friday, reported that several people had been killed, their villages bombed and at least two villages burnt to the ground.
    “We continue to urge states in the region to keep their borders open for Nigerians who are fleeing their country and may need international protection.
    “We are also advising against any forced returns,’’ the report quoted the UNHCR spokesperson, Adrian Edwards, as saying.
    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States have been under state-of-emergency since May 2013 as the army fights Boko Haram insurgents.
    “Of the more than 4,000, who fled to Cameroon since mid-January, most are in the Logone-et-Chari area of Far North Region.
    “With this new influx, there are now 12,428 Nigerian refugees in Cameroon, according to local Cameroonian authorities. Of that number 2,183 have so far been moved to a UNHCR camp at Minawao, 130 kilometres further inland.
    “Together with partner agencies we are providing refugees with shelter, health, sanitation, education, food, and other help,’’ UNHCR said.
    The agency noted that its team in Cameroon’s far north region had spoken with refugees from the area around Banki, a town just across the border in Borno State.
    “The refugees said their villages were bombed, that several people had been killed, and that at least two villages were burnt to the ground,” it said.
    According to UNHCR, in Niger, 1,500 new refugees, mostly women and children, have arrived in the Diffa region of south-east Niger.

  • UN warns against illegal deportation of Nigerian refugees

    UN warns against illegal deportation of Nigerian refugees

    The United Nations refugee agency is warning countries against forcibly returning people to northeastern Nigeria, where the escalating violence could put their lives at risk. The UNHCR reports some 10,000 Nigerians have fled into neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger in recent months.

    The U.N. refugee agency says more than 8,000 of the Nigerians who have fled the escalating violence in their country have sought refuge in Cameroon.

    Spokesman Dan McNorton said the UNHCR is alarmed at reports that local officials attempted to forcibly return 111 people from Cameroon to Nigeria on October 5.

    “They were expelled from a village in the Far North region of Cameroon, to Adamawa state in Nigeria. During this incident, 15 people were killed and another seven wounded,” said McNorton. “The remaining 89 individuals immediately fled back to Cameroon and were detained. UNHCR is working closely with the government of Cameroon to assess whether there are people in this group in need of international protection.”

    Five months ago, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe after a surge of deadly attacks blamed on the Islamist radical group Boko Haram. The president dispatched more troops to the area, but the militants remain active and violence continues.

    The UNHCR says the violence is estimated to have displaced about 5,000 people within the northeastern region of Nigeria, but the number actually could be significantly higher.

    Spokesman McNorton said it is difficult to know the extent of displacement because the present dangers prevent his and other humanitarian agencies from accessing that area.

    “It is very, very difficult in that part of Nigeria and we are trying to do what we can to see what access we can. But, obviously, the safety of our staff and others who we work with is of paramount concern,” he said. “I think there are a number of factors, which, of course are interlinked in this region. We, and today with this return advisory, are underlying the importance of bordering countries, but also all states to ensure that their borders are kept open, and those fleeing conflict are given the safety and security that they need.”

  • More than 2m have fled Syria – UN

    More than 2m have fled Syria – UN

    More than two million Syrians are now refugees, with the total going up by a million in six months, the United Nations High Commission for Refugee says.

    According to UNHCR, at least 700,000 have fled to Lebanon, and more Syrians are now displaced than any other nationality.

    France and the United States are continuing to push for military action over alleged chemical weapons use by Syrian forces.

    There are suggestions that President Barack Obama may be planning much wider action than the limited strikes that have been publicly proposed, BBC reports.

    The reports emerged as senior U.S politicians were set to speak before a congressional committee, to rally support for intervention.

    The UNHCR said in a statement on Tuesday: “Syria is haemorrhaging women, children and men who cross borders often with little more than the clothes on their backs.”

    Around half of those forced to leave are children, UN agencies estimate, with about three-quarters of them under 11.

    Just 118,000 refugee children have been able to continue in some sort of education, and only one-fifth have received some sort of counselling, with agencies warning of a “lost generation” of child refugees ill-equipped to help rebuild Syria in the future.

    Lebanon has received the highest number of refugees, even though it is the smallest of Syria’s neighbours and one of the least able to cope.

    There is now thought to be one Syrian refugee in Lebanon to roughly every six Lebanese. Jordan and Turkey have taken in the second and third highest numbers respectively.