1,500 Nigerian Refugees Now In Cameroon

The Nigerian Ambassador to Cameroon, Amb. Hadiza Mustapha, has said 1,500 refugees have fled from Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states to the northern part of Cameroon, following the state of emergency declared by President Goodluck Jonathan last month.

Speaking with reporters in her office in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, she denied media reports that the refugees were over 3,000.

According to her, 1,500 as confirmed by the UN Refugee Commission and the Cameroonian authorities is the correct figure.

Amb. Mustapha said the cooperation between both countries has checked the activities of Boko Haram insurgents and that the Cameroonian government has granted the refugees unlimited stay until the situation normalises in their states.

Said she: “What I have seen in the media is over 3,000 refugees in the northern part of Cameroon. But when we asked the authorities there, we were told they are 1,500 and the UN Refugee Commission is taking care of them.

“What is also good, which is an indication of a good relationship, is that unlike in some countries that they will give the refugees just a few days or weeks or months to leave their territories, once there is normalisation in those areas, because these are people, who have come in as a result of the operations going on, the authorities have told us that our compatriots are here, the UN system is looking after them, and they have not given us a deadline to get them back to Nigeria.

“We will visit the North after this summit and also get in touch with the Nigerian authorities handling the matter. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is in touch with us and we have given it this information. So the situation is under control.

“There is a saying that you cannot choose your neighbours, but you share the good and bad with them.”

Amb. Mustapha went on: “They have also given us a lot of support. Sometimes we have even had exchange of suspected persons. As you rightly noted, this is possible because of the peace that exists between us.

“A lot of things are possible because both countries’ security agencies are co-operating. In fact, they have exchanged a lot of visits and meetings. We have to firm up the cooperation by going beyond just Nigeria and Cameroon and making it multi-lateral because as you know, there is also Chad Republic.

“There is a border between Nigeria and Chad and between Cameroon and Chad. Secondly, we have signed a trans-border security agreement with Cameroon. This is a very good document. It is a good achievement because in that document we have agreed to exchange information, do joint operation and help each other to deport suspected criminals.

“It is not for terrorism alone, it is for other trans-national or trans-border criminal activities. This has also contributed to a lot of economic and political relations.”

According to her, four million Nigerians living in Cameroon are well- behaved, hard working, law- abiding and contributing to the advancement of the nation’s economy.

On the reported harassment of Nigerians by the Cameroon gendarmes, Amb. Mustapha said while this was true in the past, there has been great improvement in the relations between the Nigerian community and its host authorities.