By Monday Ogar Follow @ogar_monday
Over 16,000 Cameroonians of the Anglophone extraction are currently spread across Cross River State with more expected as the crackdown continues in the Northwest and Southwest regions of that country says Ms. Brigitte Mukanga-Eno, the deputy representative of the United Nations Refugee Agency in Nigeria.
The UNHCR expects the number to increase daily and Ms. Brigitte while speaking at a one day workshop organized by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC) for actors on humanitarian intervention in Cross River State held in the port city of Calabar, pointed out that the organization is in an advanced stage of setting up camps for the refugees.
She was represented by Mr. Momoh Solomon who averred that the UNHCR has projected the influx of 40,000 refugees coming into Nigeria in three months with half of that number to be in Cross River State.
And, CISLAC’s executive director, Mr. Auwal Ibrahim Musa lamented the non availability of a policy direction on Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) in Nigeria and called on attendees to work towards having a legal framework.
According to him, “The consequence is that the plight of the IDP’s would remain as it is; fragmented and uncoordinated, and the responses to the root causes of internal displacement remain very poor and ineffective.”
Ibrahim who was represented by Mr. Okeke Anya, added that: “IDP’s would continue to be susceptible to all forms of exploitation, abuse and neglect across the country and largely vulnerable.”
Also, the representative of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Andy Akpotu-Adeshi posited that the agency has been at the forefront of tackling IDP’s crisis in the state, due to its coordinating role of bringing all relevant stakeholders to the table.
