2.2 million people displaced in Nigeria: UNHCR

November 20, 2015

Nigeria2.2 million people displaced - PG

The population of internally displaced people (IDP) in restive northeast Nigeria has risen to 2.2 million, a top official with UNHCR has said.

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]T[/dropcap]he United Nations High Commission for Refugees representative to Nigeria Angele Dikongue-Atangana gave the statistics on Thursday during the UNHCR 2015 stakeholders’ briefing of the commission’s representation in Nigeria, Xinhua reported.

Dikongue-Atangana said that the agency would not relent in its humanitarian support to Nigeria, urging partners and donor agencies to assist refugees and displaced persons.

The country representative said that UNHCR recorded success in its 2015 operations in Nigeria including addressing refugee and IDP plights, advocacy on statelessness, and collaboration with economic community of West African states.

According to her, the commission in its action plan supervised the voluntary repatriation of 452 Cameroon refugees back to their country.

She said plans were already in progress to repatriate 165 others back to their country before the end of the year, while resettling others to a third country in Europe, and the US.

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]S[/dropcap]he said UNHCR was working closely with relevant bodies to ensure that IDPs had their basic rights especially the right to existence, food, shelter, education, security, among other amenities.

The UNHCR representative said that in line with the global campaign in eradicating the scourge, it had engaged the national assembly in domesticating the frameworks that would prevent and reduce statelessness in Nigeria.

Notes:
1. IANS