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Govt to repatriate 80,000 Nigerian refugees in Cameroun

By Joke Falaju, Abuja
13 June 2016   |   6:32 am
The Federal Government is to repatriate over 80,000 Nigerian refugees in Cameroun, the Director General, National Emergency Management Agency (NAMA), Muhammad Sani Sidi, has disclosed.
Director-General of NEMA, Alhaji Sani Sidi

Director-General of NEMA, Alhaji Sani Sidi

The Federal Government is to repatriate over 80,000 Nigerian refugees in Cameroun, the Director General, National Emergency Management Agency (NAMA), Muhammad Sani Sidi, has disclosed.

The refugees were those displaced by the insurgency in the North East geo-political zone.

Sidi, who gave the hint at the weekend in Abuja while playing host to an African Union (AU) Humanitarian Mission led by the Commissioner, Political Affairs, Dr. Aisha Laraba Abdullahi, said a tripartite agreement involving Nigeria, Cameroun and the United Nations High Commission for Refuge (UNHCR) had been signed in that respect.

He noted that government has been responsible for the welfare and upkeep of the stranded citizens, adding that the affected state governments as well as United Nations (UN) organisations, foreign non-governmental organisations and the private sector had done a lot in the last four years to manage the huge population of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the North East, adding that they have moved from the emergency response stage to recovery and resettlement of the IDPs.

Sidi urged the visiting commissioner to assist in seeking for more assistance for the affected persons and states.

He thanked development partners, UN agencies, the civil society for working tirelessly in supporting the IDPs and Nigeria.

Earlier, Abdullahi said they were in the country to assess the IDPs and discuss areas of possible support. adding that displaced Nigerians were of concern to AU, adding that available record indicates that Africa houses 13 million IDPs and three million refugees.

She lauded the ongoing anti-insurgency war in the North East, assuring that the AU will continue to give more attention to issues of displacement through interaction and focus on addressing the root causes of conflict on the continent.

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