Cameroon evicts 2,600 refugees to Nigeria — UN

Over 2,600 refugees have been forcefully returned back to Nigeria against their will by Cameroonian government this year, the United Nations Refugee Agency has said.

The UNHCR said these forceful returns have continued unabated after the governments of Nigeria and Cameroon signed a tripartite agreement with UNHCR.

The agreement, which was signed earlier this month, says returns of refugees would be “voluntary and when conditions were conducive.”

Cameroonian troops returned refugees against their will - without allowing them time to collect their belongings, a statement from the UNHCR quoted the agency’s spokesperson, Babar Baloch, as saying.

“In one incident on March 4, some 26 men, and 27 women and children, were sent back from the Cameroonian border town of Amtide, in Kolofata district, where they had sought refuge, according to UNHCR monitoring teams in the border regions,” said Baloch, who spoke at a press briefing in Geneva.

He said those returned included a one-year-old child and a nine-month pregnant woman, who gave birth the day after her arrival to a camp for displaced people in Banki.

“During the chaos families were separated and some women were forced to leave their young children behind in Cameroon, including a child less than three years old,” he said.

About 17 people, who claimed to be Cameroonian nationals, were also deported by mistake to Banki, he added.