About 133 Nigerian refugees comprising mostly women and children who fled Nigeria for Cameroon in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgence in the northeast have returned to the country. The returnees touched down at the Yola International Airport aboard the Nigerian Airforce C130 at about 5:00 pm on Thursday.
They were accompanied by officials of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, UNHCR, IOM, NAPTIP, security agencies and other humanitarian organisations. Upon their arrival, they were taken to a facility within the Yola International Airport where food was provided for them before going through a screening process.
According to the UNHCR Representative, Roger Volo, the exercise is a voluntary repatriation because the refugees voluntarily signed to return to their ancestral homes. Also speaking on the repatriation, the newly sworn in Minister for Humanitarian Services, Disaster Management and Internally Displaced Persons, Sadiya Faruk who was on ground to receive the refugees, assured them that government will take care of their welfare.
There are about 97,000 Nigerians taking refuge in Cameroon out of which 8,000 are from Adamawa state while the rest are indigenes of Borno and Yobe State. According to the Minister, the evacuation of the refugees will continue until all those who are willing to return are brought back home. Narrating her ordeal, one of the returnees, Amina Saidu, lamented that while in Cameroon, she and her family had to endure so much hardship.
“We were in Cameroon for five years but I left my husband in Cameroon. This is because he wants to harvest his farm before returning home in the next batch. “While in Cameroon we suffered, we don’t have water and we suffer a lot to fetch fire wood for our cooking. Whenever the give us food we eat half of it while we sell the other half to meet our other needs. We are not given other condiments except salt, so we need money to buy other food items. We walk long distances before we can get firewood for our cooking which has not been easy.
“We are very happy to be back home. We thank God and also the government for bringing us back home,” she said. The Adamawa State Governor who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Basir Ahmed, said he was delighted about their return.
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