25, 000 Nigerians flee Cameroon - prelude to war ?
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25, 000 Nigerians flee Cameroon - prelude to war ?
SPECIAL REPORT:
25,000 Nigerians flee Cameroun
•Refugee camps in crisis
By Emmanuel Ofuonye
About 25,000 Nigerians are now known to have fled Cameroun, following the hand over of the 33 villages in the Lake Chad Basin ceded to Nigeria’s French-speaking neighbour. The hapless Nigerians including women and children were found by NewAge in five refugee camps in Madari, Dabamasara, Kukawa, Ali Sherif Ti and Geri Baana, all border towns in Borno State. A sixth camp in the popular town of Baga in Kukawa Local Government Area was said to have been closed down for security reasons.
Speaking to NewAge in Madari, the leader of the refugee camp, Mallam Baba Sugu said the Nigerians had to flee en masse when it dawned on them that they could not survive under the Camerounian authority. Describing the flight as one of the most traumatic experiences of his life, the man who abandoned all the fruits of his life’s labour in Logon Labi, one of the villages lost to Cameroun, added that many of the Nigerians could not withstand the psychological trauma of waking up one morning only to be told that “we are now aliens in our own land.”
Speaking on the influx of refugees, Lawan Mustafa, the village head of Madari told NewAge that apart from the psychological trauma of being told that they were no longer Nigerians, “our cousins in that area were made restless from the incessant assaults, harassment, threats and provocation by the Camerounians”.
Of the 60,000 Nigerians officially known to be inhabitants of the 33 ceded villages, NewAge sighted about 800 in Madari refugee camp, 4,000 in Arishereti, 3,500 in Geri Baana. Up till the evening of Sunday, January 18, more refugees from Cameroun were seen pouring in by boat through the waterways of Lake Chad, terminating at a place called Fish Dam, about 8 kilometres of bush path from Baga.
Though NewAge was unable to verify the number of refugees said to be holed up in two other camps in Kirinawa and Gambolu, it was discovered that the first batch of refugees, forced by deteriorating camp conditions, have had to flee again, seeking refuge among friends and relatives in places such as Gajiram, Gasarwa, Munguno, Alheri, Mile 90 and Yoyo.
Giving an insight into the refugees’ travails in Nigeria, Malam Baba Sugu told NewAge that when he and other refugees arrived from Cameroun, they were given food rations and relief materials such as rice, beans, guinea corn, blankets and plastic buckets, but added that what was distributed by the officials of Kukawa Local Government Council and the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) was a shameful story of government’s insensitivity, poor crisis management and callous bureaucracy “as the relief materials must have been diverted by corrupt officials or were meant to visit more sorrow on the refugees and in fact discourage more Nigerians from leaving Cameroun. In the name of Allah, I tell you that what we were given was not meant to keep anyone alive for two days. Some of the families did not get anything; not even a grain of guinea corn. The queues were long, the government people distributed what they came with, which could not go round, they went away leaving everyone to his or her fate. Now the children are crying, people are starving and anyone who has anything to sell, especially clothes, is doing so to stay alive.”
Indeed, life cannot be more unkind for the refugees. Not a few of them are wondering if they had not made a terrible mistake by fleeing Cameroun where the returnees said the gendarmes, doubling as tax collectors, hounded them day and night. Not only were food and blankets not provided at the Madari camp, NewAge witnessed the terrible spectacle of refugees struggling with cows to get drinking water from a pond which was the only source of water in the area.
At Ali Sherif Ti camp, conditions were even worse . A cholera epidemic appears imminent. Under the watchful eyes of armed mobile policemen deployed to ward off unwanted visitors, particularly journalists, flies darted around the eyes of crying babies.
A distraught Mallam Gobe Dandoro who had been in the refugee camp for 17 days told NewAge that he fled Dabamasara camp with his family hoping to find better chances of survival at Ali Sherif Ti camp. A former fisherman in the Camerounian village of Darak, he said many of the returnees were naïve not to have taken with a pinch of salt the sweet words of Nigerian government officials who had assured them in Cameroun that those unwilling to remain in the Francophone country would be resettled in any area of their choice within Nigeria. He added that he had been thinking of moving to yet another refugee camp but had to start working out arrangements to move his family to Yobe State after it became clear that all that was coming out of the various refugee camps were tales of woe.
Virtually all the refugees who spoke to NewAge at the five camps visited had expectations of some kind of compensation from the Federal Government, which they, however, accused of paying scant heed to the welfare and survival of over 60,000 Nigerians. Mallam Baba Sugu who is also a boat owner and cross-border businessman, puts the cost at hundreds of millions of naira the assets lost by ordinary Nigerians to the Camerounians. “I’m talking about houses, businesses, farmlands, fish ponds, schools, clinics and household items.”
The refugees in Madari who posed for a group photograph for NewAge said that just as they were the victims of Camerounian tyranny, they regretted that the Deputy Governor of Borno State, Alhaji Shettima Adamu Dibal who used to champion their cause had lost his voice since he got appointed as Secretary to the National Resettlement Committee by the Federal Government.
For all those refugees, looking dejected and forlorn, flies buzzing around the faces of their babies, not sure where the next meal would come from or what sorrows tomorrow bears in its loins, it was difficult to keep hope alive.
Except of course to find solace in Almighty Allah
25,000 Nigerians flee Cameroun
•Refugee camps in crisis
By Emmanuel Ofuonye
About 25,000 Nigerians are now known to have fled Cameroun, following the hand over of the 33 villages in the Lake Chad Basin ceded to Nigeria’s French-speaking neighbour. The hapless Nigerians including women and children were found by NewAge in five refugee camps in Madari, Dabamasara, Kukawa, Ali Sherif Ti and Geri Baana, all border towns in Borno State. A sixth camp in the popular town of Baga in Kukawa Local Government Area was said to have been closed down for security reasons.
Speaking to NewAge in Madari, the leader of the refugee camp, Mallam Baba Sugu said the Nigerians had to flee en masse when it dawned on them that they could not survive under the Camerounian authority. Describing the flight as one of the most traumatic experiences of his life, the man who abandoned all the fruits of his life’s labour in Logon Labi, one of the villages lost to Cameroun, added that many of the Nigerians could not withstand the psychological trauma of waking up one morning only to be told that “we are now aliens in our own land.”
Speaking on the influx of refugees, Lawan Mustafa, the village head of Madari told NewAge that apart from the psychological trauma of being told that they were no longer Nigerians, “our cousins in that area were made restless from the incessant assaults, harassment, threats and provocation by the Camerounians”.
Of the 60,000 Nigerians officially known to be inhabitants of the 33 ceded villages, NewAge sighted about 800 in Madari refugee camp, 4,000 in Arishereti, 3,500 in Geri Baana. Up till the evening of Sunday, January 18, more refugees from Cameroun were seen pouring in by boat through the waterways of Lake Chad, terminating at a place called Fish Dam, about 8 kilometres of bush path from Baga.
Though NewAge was unable to verify the number of refugees said to be holed up in two other camps in Kirinawa and Gambolu, it was discovered that the first batch of refugees, forced by deteriorating camp conditions, have had to flee again, seeking refuge among friends and relatives in places such as Gajiram, Gasarwa, Munguno, Alheri, Mile 90 and Yoyo.
Giving an insight into the refugees’ travails in Nigeria, Malam Baba Sugu told NewAge that when he and other refugees arrived from Cameroun, they were given food rations and relief materials such as rice, beans, guinea corn, blankets and plastic buckets, but added that what was distributed by the officials of Kukawa Local Government Council and the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) was a shameful story of government’s insensitivity, poor crisis management and callous bureaucracy “as the relief materials must have been diverted by corrupt officials or were meant to visit more sorrow on the refugees and in fact discourage more Nigerians from leaving Cameroun. In the name of Allah, I tell you that what we were given was not meant to keep anyone alive for two days. Some of the families did not get anything; not even a grain of guinea corn. The queues were long, the government people distributed what they came with, which could not go round, they went away leaving everyone to his or her fate. Now the children are crying, people are starving and anyone who has anything to sell, especially clothes, is doing so to stay alive.”
Indeed, life cannot be more unkind for the refugees. Not a few of them are wondering if they had not made a terrible mistake by fleeing Cameroun where the returnees said the gendarmes, doubling as tax collectors, hounded them day and night. Not only were food and blankets not provided at the Madari camp, NewAge witnessed the terrible spectacle of refugees struggling with cows to get drinking water from a pond which was the only source of water in the area.
At Ali Sherif Ti camp, conditions were even worse . A cholera epidemic appears imminent. Under the watchful eyes of armed mobile policemen deployed to ward off unwanted visitors, particularly journalists, flies darted around the eyes of crying babies.
A distraught Mallam Gobe Dandoro who had been in the refugee camp for 17 days told NewAge that he fled Dabamasara camp with his family hoping to find better chances of survival at Ali Sherif Ti camp. A former fisherman in the Camerounian village of Darak, he said many of the returnees were naïve not to have taken with a pinch of salt the sweet words of Nigerian government officials who had assured them in Cameroun that those unwilling to remain in the Francophone country would be resettled in any area of their choice within Nigeria. He added that he had been thinking of moving to yet another refugee camp but had to start working out arrangements to move his family to Yobe State after it became clear that all that was coming out of the various refugee camps were tales of woe.
Virtually all the refugees who spoke to NewAge at the five camps visited had expectations of some kind of compensation from the Federal Government, which they, however, accused of paying scant heed to the welfare and survival of over 60,000 Nigerians. Mallam Baba Sugu who is also a boat owner and cross-border businessman, puts the cost at hundreds of millions of naira the assets lost by ordinary Nigerians to the Camerounians. “I’m talking about houses, businesses, farmlands, fish ponds, schools, clinics and household items.”
The refugees in Madari who posed for a group photograph for NewAge said that just as they were the victims of Camerounian tyranny, they regretted that the Deputy Governor of Borno State, Alhaji Shettima Adamu Dibal who used to champion their cause had lost his voice since he got appointed as Secretary to the National Resettlement Committee by the Federal Government.
For all those refugees, looking dejected and forlorn, flies buzzing around the faces of their babies, not sure where the next meal would come from or what sorrows tomorrow bears in its loins, it was difficult to keep hope alive.
Except of course to find solace in Almighty Allah
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