UNHCR registers 12,100 Camerounian refugees, raises concern over influx into Nigeria

Worried by the increasing influx of Camerounians into the country, the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it has registered 12,100 Camerounian refugees in Benue and Cross River states.

UNHCR Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Antonio Canhandula during a news conference yesterday in Abuja expressed worry that the situation may worsen if a solution to Cameroon’s Anglophone region is not found.

He said that currently, 4,000 of the Cameroonians were registered in Benue while 8,100 others were registered in Cross River, predicting that as the crisis in Camerounian communities continue and government adopts extra security measures, more asylum seekers would arrive into Nigeria.

Canhandula noted that although there are Cameroonian refugees in some other parts of the country, they are more in Benue and Cross River, with need for urgent intervention by government and humanitarian partners.

According to him, the UN body is trying to accelerate the registration process, to get the actual figures of Cameroonians in those states.

The Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displayed Persons (NCFRMI) Sadiya Farouq, said on the occasion that Federal Government had started giving out relief materials to refugees in the affected states.

She said that government was working with other partners to address the situation, by putting them in camps and ensuring that those camps were secured.

Farouq, however, said that discussions were ongoing with the Cameroun government to ensure that the political crisis being faced at the moment was resolved.