Over 1,000 Nigerians, out of the thousands who fled attacks by Boko
Haram jihadists to neighbouring countries, returned to their homeland
this week, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said
Wednesday.
Between Monday and Wednesday, 1,187 Nigerians that had been
sheltering across the border in Cameroon resettled in a refugee camp in
the northeastern state of Adamawa “as a result of improvement in the security situation,” NEMA spokesman Sani Datti said in an emailed statement.
A further 15,000 Nigerians are expected to return to their country
in the next few weeks, said Datti. Since August, thousands of Nigerian
citizens have crossed back across the border, wooed by President
Muhammadu Buhari’s pledge to seriously dent Boko Haram’s fighting
capacity by the end of the year.
Buhari said earlier this month his government would “do all within its powers to facilitate the quick return and resettlement”
of the displaced. Security analysts say the army has achieved some
success in pushing the Islamists out of captured territory in Nigeria’s
north-east and reducing their ability to mount attacks.
But sporadic deadly raids on towns and villages in the region
continue, as well as in northern Cameroon, southeastern Niger and on the
Chadian side of Lake Chad, where all four countries meet.
Source: AFP
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