Thousands of civilians flee
Nigerian military offensive
against Boko Haram as new
refugee crisis beckons in Africa .
Thousands of people are fleeing
to Chad , Niger and Cameroon as
the crisis in neighbouring Nigeria
deepens , the UN refugee agency
has said .
UNHCR officers said on
Tuesday that up to 3 , 000
refugees had arrived in Cameroon
amid reports of at least 6 , 000
people escaping to Niger over the
past weeks as the confrontation
between the Nigerian army and
the Boko Haram group
intensified in the country ' s
northeast .
" The immediate priority is to
secure food and shelter as
refugees are entering extremely
harsh and difficult areas , " Fatou
Lejeune - Kaba , Africa
spokesperson for UNHCR , told
Al Jazeera .
Cameroon had initially closed its
border with Nigeria to prevent
members of Boko Haram to
enter , but after June 11, the
border was re- opened , the
UNHCR said .
With fighting only intensifying ,
and about 3 , 000 people arriving
between June 11- 13 alone , there
are concerns that this may be the
start of a large exodus from the
region.
New arrivals
The government of President
Goodluck Jonathan embarked on
a major military offensive on
May 15 to root out the Boko
Haram group responsible for a
series of bloody attacks in the
African country over the past four
years , killing hundreds of people .
A state of emergency was
imposed on the Adamawa, Borno
and Yobe states in a response to
the rising attacks, raising
concerns of human rights
activists of possible violations
against civilians .
The UNHCR said crossings
into Cameroon began a week ago,
with most of the refugees being
women and children .
Refugees are being hosted in
churches and schools , and relying
on food from the local population .
We are working with the
authorities to relocate the
refugees to safer places away
from the border, away from
possible fighting , Lejeune - Kaba
said .
Meanwhile in Niger , trucks
carrying aid was dispatched from
Niamey to the southeastern
Diffa region, where more
than 6 , 000 people have arrived
from northern Nigeria in the past
weeks .
This includes Nigerian nationals
as well as returning Niger
nationals and others nationalities .
Most of the new arrivals in
Niger traveled on foot from rural
villages across the border and
from Maiduguri and Baga towns .
In Chad , refugees have been
arriving in small numbers ,
saying their homes were
destroyed after the military
accused them of harbouring Boko
Haram fighters .
Military offensive
Aid organisation and media have
been banned from accessing the
frontlines and there have also
been complaints that mobile
networks were shut down since
the offensive started , effectively
cutting off the region from the
rest of the country and the world .
" The situation is not getting the
attention it deserves , " Lejeune -
Kaba , from the UNHCR , said .
In late May , Amnesty
International urged Nigerian
authorities not to use the state of
emergency in the north eastern
regions as an excuse to commit
human rights violations .
Amnesty said detainees were
being held without access to
lawyers, or being officially
charged with a crime .
The human rights group also
claimed that services had come to
a standstill with schools closed
and some towns resembling
' ghost towns'.






http://m.aljazeera.com/story/2013618111147362152

Never trust any news coming from aljazeera, investigate first because they look more as bokoharam sponsors propaganding tools. It this same reason that they were arrested in Niger Republic.

It's interesting how dismissive Nairalanders are of this report because it's not happening to their ethnic group.

Euronews- No comment.

Suddenly Nigerians have no empathy for fellow innocent Nigerians caught-up in the middle of war, just because it is not in their community. What a shame.

I still recall all the tales my parents told me of things that happened during the civil war - how the villages where invaded, how the left town, hunger, sickness, stayed in the forest and my elder sister Beatrice (who never got to meet) died in tender age during their journey.

It is very wrong for anyone here to wish that to someone else (irrespective of the reasons you feed yourself to help you sleep at night).

If you read this report paragraph by paragraph, u will discorver that nowhere was BH condemned and everywhere was Nigerian authority and the Nigerian Army condemned, something must be wrong with this Aljazeera!
Aljazeera suld go and open d schools and givernment offices in dose areas in oda to make life come back to dose places( I hope they learnt that BH killed about 8 students and their teachers in Yobe school recently).
I hope Aljazeera heard dis: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/139062-boko-haram-kills-nine-students-13-fishermen-in-maiduguri.html

egift: Suddenly Nigerians have no empathy for fellow innocent Nigerians caught-up in the middle of war, just because it is not in their community. What a shame.

I still recall all the tales my parents told me of things that happened during the civil war - how the villages where invaded, how the left town, hunger, sickness, stayed in the forest and my elder sister Beatrice (who never got to meet) died in tender age during their journey.

It is very wrong for anyone here to wish that to someone else (irrespective of the reasons you feed yourself to help you sleep at night).

What do you mean by "suddenly"?
This has been the way we live as "one" Nigeria.
You are talking about having "no empathy for fellow innocent Nigerians caught-up in the middle of war"? then what do you say about Nigerians killing innocent fellow Nigerians because a coup was dubbed against their "community"?

During the "sai Buhari" movement of 2011 elections, buses were stopped, and Nigerians were separated from Nigerians, and then killed.

This will never stop. Let us split now to stop the bloodshed.

cogitoErgo: If you read this report paragraph by paragraph, u will discorver that nowhere was BH condemned and everywhere was Nigerian authority and the Nigerian Army condemned, something must be wrong with this Aljazeera!
Aljazeera suld go and open d schools and givernment offices in dose areas in oda to make life come back to dose places( I hope they learnt that BH killed about 8 students and their teachers in Yobe school recently).
I hope Aljazeera heard dis: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/139062-boko-haram-kills-nine-students-13-fishermen-in-maiduguri.html

Remember it was this same Al Jazeera that obtained an exclusive footage of citizens being executed in Borno by the Police force when d Boko Haram rebellion started , I don't know if you saw it but that story has died ever since, take ur time to watch Al Jazeera before you make your conclusions.