Statelessness looms in Nigeria’s Northeast – UNHCR

Mrs Liz Ahua, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Regional Representative for West Africa, said massive displacement in Nigeria’s Northeast zone poses great dangers of statelessness for victims.

Ahua said this yesterday in Banjul, The Gambia at the opening ceremony of a threeday ministerial meeting on the Adoption of the Regional Plan of Action to Eradicate Statelessness in West Africa.

She said that if urgent actions were not taken, some of the 2.4 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) or refugees residing in neighbouring countries could lose their nationality and become stateless.

She explained that displacement, whether caused by conflicts or natural disasters, was a root cause of statelessness, which further increases the risk, if not urgently and properly tackled.

She said that it could also become an obstacle to achieving durable solutions for displaced persons and prevent them from rebuilding their lives in dignity as well as impede return and relocation.

“The crises in the Lake Chad Basin region is a prime example, where over 2.4 million people have been displaced by the conflict, including over 1.8 million IDPs in Nigeria.

“Over 200,000 Nigerians are living as refugees in neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad, and Cameroon without adequate documentation.