FG: 500,000 Nigerians awaiting repatriation from Chad, Niger, Cameroon

By Samad Uthman

Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, federal commissioner of the National Commission for Refugees Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons  (NCFRMI), says 500,000 Nigerians are awaiting repatriation from Chad, Cameroon, and Niger Republic. 

The refugees were displaced from states in the northeast mostly Borno and Yobe as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency in that region, leading to the flight of thousands to the neighbouring countries.

Suleiman-Ibrahim said this on Sunday at an event organised on the margins of the 77th United Nations general assembly in New York. 

She said the displaced Nigerians will be repatriated before the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure. 

“As you have heard, there is a presidential committee on repatriation in the north-east,” she said.

“The committee is to complement the technical working group on repatriation, which is chaired by the commission. And it’s a process that has been ongoing. We have started repatriation, we are experiencing involuntary returns.

“So it’s going to happen before the end of Mr President’s tenure we would have brought everybody back home. And there’s funding.

“We have almost about 500,000 awaiting repatriation. The next batch will consist of 1,000 people and like I told you it’s spontaneous returns that happening now and we’re looking after them as they come back. They are coming from Niger, Chad and Cameroon.”

Also speaking at the event, Babagana Zulum, Borno state governor, said over 90,000 members of Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP) have surrendered in the last year.

He added that insurgency in the north-east geopolitical zone is coming to an end.

Source: The Cable