Revealed: 2000 Nigerians Repatriated By Cameroonian Government Over Detonated Bomb in IDPs Camp

Tom Garba

In the past one week the number of Nigerians deported by the Cameroonian government has risen to over 2000, the affected persons our correspondent gathered are internally displaced persons (IDPs) taking refuge in  Cameroon as the later tries to grapple with worsening insecurity due to attacks by the deadly Islamic Boko Haram sect.

The development which came shortly after a bomb exploded in one of the camps earmarked for the keeping of internally displaced persons from Nigeria by Cameroonian authorities. The Nigerian immigration Service on Monday was notified about repatriation of another 1500 Nigerian IDPs, taking refuge in camps set up by Cameroonian government along its border with Nigeria.

Only last week Nigerian Immigration Service Comptroller in charge of Adamawa and Taraba state Mr. Ubi Ikpi Nkanu disclosed to newsmen, the repatriation of 520 Nigerians by Cameroonian authorities.

A top ranking officer of Nigerian immigration service who confided to our reporter said the actions from their Cameroonian counterpart; he gathered were due to security concerns.

“And these were part of precautionary steps being taken by Cameroonian Authorities to deal with worsening insecurity on its home soil arising from escalating Boko Haram attacks”.

He added that with this development “the Cameroonian government has begun the closure of IDP camps along its borders, with the repatriation of over 1500 IDPs back to Nigeria”.

The highly placed immigration official who did not want his name known disclosed added that the Nigerian immigration service has been contacted by the Cameroonian government about the repatriation of another set of IDPs numbering over 1500.

He explained that the actions of the Cameroonian authorities was not wilful but as a result of “security concerns based on their suspicion that some of the attacks on their home soil were being perpetrated by Boko Haram members with the collaboration of some persons inside the IDPs”.

He said the fear that some members of the dreaded Islamic sect may be among the IDPs caused the Cameroonian authorities to take the “involuntary action of repatriating these set of 1500 IDPs and thereby dismantling the camps in the affected location”.

He also expressed worries that Cameroonian government might just have begun to tacitly close down most of the camps on their soil because only recently they repatriated over 500 IDPs.

According to him, most of the repatriated persons mostly comprised of women and children.

Investigations made by this medium revealed that the IDPs repatriated by the Cameroonian authorities are now camped at Sagoda, a border community adjoining both countries, and that is due to logistic constraints on the side of the Nigeria authorities, the IDPs were yet to be evacuated.

Even though representatives of the Borno state government is said to be in touch with the Adamawa state government, as both are expected to collaborate to ensure the resettlement of repatriated IDPs in the camps of either state.

But evacuation of the IDPs has been constrained as the Adamawa command of the immigration Service ,do not have any truck or bus to convey the IDP’s and is consequently depending on the state governors of Adamawa and Borno to provide them with buses to ferry the IDPs.

However, it was learnt that the conspicuous involvement of the Borno state government was borne out of the fact that most of repatriated IDPs are of Borno extraction. Majority of them are Borno state indigenes who fled the horrific attacks of the sects waged on Gworza and other Borno communities which forced them flee into Cameroon and Chad.