LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria says it has agreed to Cameroon’s voluntary return of 80,000 Nigerian refugees who have fled the Boko Haram Islamic insurgency. Nigerian officials had said Cameroon was threatening to force the repatriation. Cameroon previously has dumped thousands on the border. Nigerian emergency agency spokesman Sani Datti says Sunday that an agreement for their return “voluntarily and in a dignified manner” has been signed by the UNHCR refugee agency, Nigeria and Cameroon.
It may be recalled that in March 2016, Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau signed a communiqué at the end of a bilateral meeting with officials of Cameroon Interior Ministry on issues related to exchange of information on the organization and duties of Interior Ministry of both countries, and also on the return of Nigerian refugees back home which would involve a tripartite agreement between Nigeria, Cameroon and United Nations Commission on Human Rights and Maritime Piracy.
Last month, Nigerians who had returned home were blocked from returning to Cameroon though they complained they did not have enough water as temperatures soared over 100 degrees (42 degrees Celsius). A new influx will tax Nigerian officials struggling to cater for 2.1 million people displaced within the country. The U.N. says.
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