PHOTO: JOSEPH WANTU
• 162 stranded citizens return from Libya
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has pleaded with the Cameroonian government to accommodate 30,000 Nigerians that fled from recent attacks in Rann, Borno State
The Country Director in Nigeria, Eric Batonon, in a statement yesterday in Maiduguri, said: “The Norwegian Refugee Council is alarmed by the massive displacement of 30,000 people from the Nigerian town of Rann into Cameroon.”
According to him, the Nigerian refugees, who had crossed into the Francophone nation last week, were forced to return.
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He urged Cameroon to keep its borders open in consonance with a tripartite agreement.
The humanitarian assistance, Batonon explained, was in tune with the pact entered by the two countries with the UNHCR.
“The women, men, and children fleeing are not opportunists. They are civilians running for their lives,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has received another batch of 162 stranded Nigerian returnees from Libya.
They consist of 100 females, including four pregnant women, 62 males, 13 female children and five infants.
In the male category, there are 50 adults, four male children and 13 infants. So far, 8,808 returnees had landed in the country.
Coordinator of Lagos Territorial Office of NEMA, Idris Muhammed, in a statement yesterday by the agency’s Information Officer, Ibrahim Farinloye, urged the returnees to be agents of positive change by joining the campaign against irregular migration.
