Refugees fleeing attacks in north eastern Nigeria, UNHCR watching for new displacement
Refugees fleeing attacks in north eastern Nigeria, UNHCR watching for new displacement
Briefing Notes, 9 May 2014
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 9 May 2014, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
UNHCR is alarmed at the recent wave of attacks on civilians in northeast Nigeria. The brutality and frequency of these attacks is unprecedented. The past two months have seen multiple kidnappings and deaths, creating population displacement both inside Nigeria and into neighbouring countries.
Refugees and internally displaced people alike are reporting acts of extreme violence, and showing clear signs of distress and fear. Some have witnessed friends or family members being randomly singled out and killed in the streets. People speak of homes and fields being burned to the ground, with villages completely razed, or grenades being launched into crowded markets killing people and livestock. There is mention of people being caught in fighting between insurgents and the armed forces, arbitrary arrests under the suspicion of belonging to insurgent groups, and other serious alleged crimes including, reportedly, summary executions.
Terrorized students who had survived attacks on their schools in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states have told UNHCR how they saw friends being killed or kidnapped. From media reports the April 14th abduction of more than 200 girls in a school in Chibok in Borno state is just one in a series of similar kidnappings from schools in northeast Nigeria in recent months.
Next week will see the first anniversary of Nigeria's declaration of a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. In all 250,000 people are now internally displaced, according to the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). Some 61,000 others have fled to neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Most are Niger nationals who were living in Nigeria, but 22,000 are Nigerians who have been made refugees by the crisis.
http://www.unhcr.org/536ca0f79.html
