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Southern Camerounian agitators
WHILE the United Nations and indeed the international community appear concerned with conflicts and other related tumultuous events in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, scant attention is paid to the secessionist uprising in Southern Cameroun which is steadily escalating out of control and indeed approximating a war in the making.
If there was any doubt about this before, it has presently been dispelled by the increasing number of refugees streaming into neighbouring Nigeria following recent clashes between security agents in Cameroun and members of the secessionist group in the southern part of the country with attendant casualties, including the dead, the injured and the displaced, especially among the civilian population. At the last count, more than 40,000 Camerounians who reportedly fled their country on account of the crisis there are taking refuge in Cross River State of Nigeria. According to Mr John Inaku, the Director General of Cross River State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, the state government was prompted to take action following the recent upsurge in the number of refugees from Cameroun. “When we saw the tide of refugees coming into the state, we as a government went ahead to register them and also sensitise the people who are indigenes of the areas the migrants are moving to let them know that they should allow the people coming from trouble zones to come in and settle down and live among them.
That there is a United Nations Convention which Nigeria is a signatory to that permits us to allow migrants from trouble areas to be allowed to stay within the country,” he said. Mr. Inaku also informed that some of these migrants could not be registered because they entered the country through routes which are not officially recognised for that purpose, adding “that is why the Nigeria Immigration Service cannot give accurate figure of the number of refugees who have come in from Cameroon.” He did not stop there. “Those of us in the field have identified that those moving into the state are so many and in some cases there are as many as 12 persons per room in some communities. So what we did as a government was to organise them and ensure that both the natives and migrants are catered for and they live peacefully. “We have gone to the field to do the much we could by registering all the migrants in all the communities in the seven local government areas they are living; that is why we have a figure of 36,000 which is higher than what was thought in the past, which was 10,000. In Akamkpa alone we have 6,000 and the number of children there is 3,016; in Ikom we have 6,800 and the number of children there is 2,010; in Boki 7,112 migrants with 3,012 children and in Etung we have 4000 with 1,098 children; Obanlikwu 8,000 and in Utanga we have 4000 people and 10, 919 children; while up the Ranch, we have 2700 adult and 10,521 children migrants. If you put all these figures together you get over 36,000 persons who have migrated from the Cameroon to Nigeria.
“So the advocacy here is that we as the first respondents, that is Cross River State government under the office of State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, have gone into the communities where these people are kept so that we can have proper record of their number. That is the information we intimated the Immigration people so that they too can go into the communities not just stay at the border post to record those who are coming through the borders into the state. So that they can have the records we have. “The United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, is not resting. The country representative has come and seen that the facilities are not enough. We are asking for schools, health facilities to cater for the migrants. We are doing our best to pacify the host communities. We are asking for camps to be built for these people because this is not going to end now. It is a struggle for independence which is likely to take some time. “The migrants are reporting that all the Anglophone security people in Cameroun have been moved to the Francophone area and these people are harassing and intimidating people in the south. That is why we are witnessing this influx of people into the state because we are nearest to Southern Cameroun. The state government has done its best for these people within our limited resources; that is why we are crying out loud to the United Nations and other agencies for help. If you go today to the areas I have just mentioned you will see that more people have come into those communities which further stretches the facilities in those communities,” Inaku informed. But spokesperson of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Mr. Sunday James, in a phone interview with Vanguard INSIGHT put the total number of Camerounian migrants who fled their country to seek refuge in Nigeria at 12, 521, adding that they are presently being kept in sheltered camps in Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Taraba and Benue (Kwande Local Government Area) states. He gave the breakdown as follows: Cross River – 8, 171 Benue – 4,000 Taraba – 208, and Akwa Ibom – 142. According to him, the migrants are being taken care of by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR and the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA. He said that though the refugees are being accommodated in the spirit of African brotherhood and UN Convention, they are restricted to the camp and not allowed into the country for security reasons since they are regarded as secessionists in Cameroun. “They are kept in sheltered camps and the instruction from the Comptroller General is that they should not be allowed into the country for security reasons.
WHILE the United Nations and indeed the international community appear concerned with conflicts and other related tumultuous events in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, scant attention is paid to the secessionist uprising in Southern Cameroun which is steadily escalating out of control and indeed approximating a war in the making.
If there was any doubt about this before, it has presently been dispelled by the increasing number of refugees streaming into neighbouring Nigeria following recent clashes between security agents in Cameroun and members of the secessionist group in the southern part of the country with attendant casualties, including the dead, the injured and the displaced, especially among the civilian population. At the last count, more than 40,000 Camerounians who reportedly fled their country on account of the crisis there are taking refuge in Cross River State of Nigeria. According to Mr John Inaku, the Director General of Cross River State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, the state government was prompted to take action following the recent upsurge in the number of refugees from Cameroun. “When we saw the tide of refugees coming into the state, we as a government went ahead to register them and also sensitise the people who are indigenes of the areas the migrants are moving to let them know that they should allow the people coming from trouble zones to come in and settle down and live among them.
That there is a United Nations Convention which Nigeria is a signatory to that permits us to allow migrants from trouble areas to be allowed to stay within the country,” he said. Mr. Inaku also informed that some of these migrants could not be registered because they entered the country through routes which are not officially recognised for that purpose, adding “that is why the Nigeria Immigration Service cannot give accurate figure of the number of refugees who have come in from Cameroon.” He did not stop there. “Those of us in the field have identified that those moving into the state are so many and in some cases there are as many as 12 persons per room in some communities. So what we did as a government was to organise them and ensure that both the natives and migrants are catered for and they live peacefully. “We have gone to the field to do the much we could by registering all the migrants in all the communities in the seven local government areas they are living; that is why we have a figure of 36,000 which is higher than what was thought in the past, which was 10,000. In Akamkpa alone we have 6,000 and the number of children there is 3,016; in Ikom we have 6,800 and the number of children there is 2,010; in Boki 7,112 migrants with 3,012 children and in Etung we have 4000 with 1,098 children; Obanlikwu 8,000 and in Utanga we have 4000 people and 10, 919 children; while up the Ranch, we have 2700 adult and 10,521 children migrants. If you put all these figures together you get over 36,000 persons who have migrated from the Cameroon to Nigeria.
“So the advocacy here is that we as the first respondents, that is Cross River State government under the office of State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, have gone into the communities where these people are kept so that we can have proper record of their number. That is the information we intimated the Immigration people so that they too can go into the communities not just stay at the border post to record those who are coming through the borders into the state. So that they can have the records we have. “The United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, is not resting. The country representative has come and seen that the facilities are not enough. We are asking for schools, health facilities to cater for the migrants. We are doing our best to pacify the host communities. We are asking for camps to be built for these people because this is not going to end now. It is a struggle for independence which is likely to take some time. “The migrants are reporting that all the Anglophone security people in Cameroun have been moved to the Francophone area and these people are harassing and intimidating people in the south. That is why we are witnessing this influx of people into the state because we are nearest to Southern Cameroun. The state government has done its best for these people within our limited resources; that is why we are crying out loud to the United Nations and other agencies for help. If you go today to the areas I have just mentioned you will see that more people have come into those communities which further stretches the facilities in those communities,” Inaku informed. But spokesperson of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Mr. Sunday James, in a phone interview with Vanguard INSIGHT put the total number of Camerounian migrants who fled their country to seek refuge in Nigeria at 12, 521, adding that they are presently being kept in sheltered camps in Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Taraba and Benue (Kwande Local Government Area) states. He gave the breakdown as follows: Cross River – 8, 171 Benue – 4,000 Taraba – 208, and Akwa Ibom – 142. According to him, the migrants are being taken care of by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR and the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA. He said that though the refugees are being accommodated in the spirit of African brotherhood and UN Convention, they are restricted to the camp and not allowed into the country for security reasons since they are regarded as secessionists in Cameroun. “They are kept in sheltered camps and the instruction from the Comptroller General is that they should not be allowed into the country for security reasons.
Formerly posted in Vanguard News
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