Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in North East Nigeria could be set to experience a difficult incoming rainy season in terms of welfare services available to them, owing to the surge of returning refugees from Cameroon. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that the border town of Banki, which already struggles to manage its 45,000 displaced persons, is seeing the present and planned return of thousands of refugees from Minawao camp in Cameroon.
According to High Commissioner Filippo Grandi, this development does not bode well for both existing and returning refugees. The Banki camp is overcrowded, shelter is scarce, humanitarian aid is short, and IDPs have little access to water and sanitation. All of the aforementioned factors come together to create health risks and could potentially plunge the country into a humanitarian crisis.
Most of the 889 refugees that suddenly returned to Banki from Minawao on June 17 are children. A class of refugees deserving of extra attention that they might not receive due to the situation in the region and the approach of rainy season. Altogether, over 12,000 refugees have returned from Minawao between April and mid-June.
World Food Programme’s (WFP) June report pinpoints the reduction in attacks in the northeast as a key reason for the mass returns. But, unfortunately, their displacement is still a major socioeconomic issue, and some areas in Borno for example remain a no-go area for humanitarian organisations who want to offer the aid the region desperately needs.
In addition, rainy seasons tend to impede the reach of humanitarian aid to the states in the northeast affected by the drastic results of insecurity in the region. World Food Programme (WFP) reports that the current food crisis in the region could be further worsened with the change in seasons, as the rain would affect factors such as the road routes where relief passes through. Also, the rainy season could account for a quicker spread of diseases in the region.
If more refugees keep returning, they would simply be adding to the burden presented by the 1.9 million displaced and 5.2 million food insecure persons in North East Nigeria. To this end, it is being suggested that the UNHCR and the Nigerian and Cameroonian governments meet to discuss how to curb and adequately address “these spontaneous movements” of refugees between both countries.
Beyond those directly affected by the insecurity in the north east, 14 million Nigerians in general are in need of one form of humanitarian assistance or the other. The UNHCR Assistant Representative for Operations in Nigeria, Mr. Boubacar Bamba, disclosed this fact at an event to mark World Refugee Day in Lagos yesterday.
The Head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Lagos Liaison Office, Dr. Omolaso Omolehin was also in attendance and highlighted other risks, including sexual violence and reproductive health risks which IDPs continue to be exposed to.
It is hoped that the inconvenient issue with returning refugees can be addressed well before the rainy season commences, in order to avoid a fresh crisis in the country.
