The federal government has announced plans to repatriate 20,000 Nigerians from Chad and Cameroon over the next two months. The plan involves bringing back 6,000 individuals from Chad and 14,000 from Cameroon.
As of December 31, 2023, there were 21,338 Nigerian refugees in Chad and 120,677 in Cameroon. In the previous year, the federal government successfully repatriated 5,000 Nigerian refugees from Cameroon to Banki in Borno State. In preparation for the return of the refugees, the federal government procured food and non-food items worth N2 billion in 2023.
The Federal Commissioner of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), Tijani Ahmed, disclosed this information at a Technical Working Group meeting in Abuja. The refugees were displaced due to various factors, including the 2022 flood, the Boko Haram crisis, clashes between farmers and herders, and the ongoing challenges posed by climate change.
Ahmed said: “In the year 2023, the commission spearheaded the repatriation of 5,000 people living in Cameroon to the country.
“We are also arranging to bring back those who are interested in returning because repatriation is voluntary and an agreement has been signed between UNHCR, the government of Cameroon and the federal government of Nigeria in the area of repatriation of our people from Cameroon.
“We are going to work towards the repatriation of 6,000 Nigerians out of about 21,000 of them in Chad.
“We are looking at returning 3000 households from Chad, which is about 6,000 people would be repatriated from Chad to Nigeria. For Cameroon, we have about 14,000 people but we will profile them because we don’t have to force anybody to return. Arrangements are underway to get them back. Within the next two months, we should have concluded the arrangement on repatriation.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Deputy Representative (Protection), Bernadette Muteshi commended the federal government for taking the lead in the repatriation exercise.
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