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235 Nigerian refugees return home from Cameroon

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On Friday, at least 235 Nigerians left a refugee camp in Cameroon for their homes in Nigeria “voluntarily” ferried on trucks by a team of soldiers, an official with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said.

Mohammed Kanar, the relief agency’s regional coordinator, said: “Yes, this is true. But it is an ongoing activity. We have been receiving our citizens who sought refuge in neighboring countries. We have received at least 9,000 from Cameroon, including some 2,000 we recently received at the border.”

Read also: Epidemics, hunger killing Nigerian refugees in Cameroon, UN says

Kanar said that the refugees were those “who offered to return home on their own accord”.

Corroborating an earlier statement by the International Committee of the Red Cross, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said Wednesday that at least 1.5 million residents from the northeast region had been internally displaced as a result of the insurgency. This figure excludes those who fled to other countries.

Most such refugees are initially settled at temporary camps in various north-eastern Nigerian cities of Maiduguri, Yola or Damaturu — the capital cities of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, respectively. They are later settled back in their original communities once security agencies find the atmosphere conducive.

In recent years, thousands of Nigerians fleeing Boko Haram violence have sought refuge in neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Since 2013, thousands of refugees have fled northeast Nigeria to escape Boko Haram militant group attacks.

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