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Nigerian army shoot own refugees at border, Cameroon blamed
[TRUST.ORG] Cameroonian gendarme Gaitan Atouba was stunned when the Nigerian military opened fire on more than 100 Nigerian refugees under his protection, killing 15 and seriously wounding seven in the northeast Nigeria... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... n border town of Banki earlier this month. Atouba and his fellow officers had been ordered to round up refugees in the town of Amchide in Cameroon's Far North region and hand them over to the Nigerian border authorities in Banki for questioning about their possible involvement with the rebel Islamist sect Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Around 8,300 Nigerians, fleeing both attacks by Boko Haram and the heavy-handed response of the security forces in northern Nigeria, have crossed into Cameroon's Far North since Nigerian President Jonathan Goodluck declared a state of emergency in June. The Cameroon government believes Boko Haram members have infiltrated Cameroon posing as refugees, and are using it as a safe haven to launch attacks into Nigeria as part of their drive to establish an independent state based on sharia (Islamic law) in largely Musselmen northeast Nigeria. Hundreds have been killed in Boko Haram attacks and fighting between the group and Nigerian security forces in recent months. "The refugees had already been warned that if they didn't relocate to the official refugee camp in Minawao, they would be treated as undocumented Democrats or combatants and handed over to the Nigerian authorities," said Atouba. "In our search, we found evidence that connected them to Boko Haram, so we had to kick them out of the country." Shooting broke out when the Nigerians, under Cameroonian escort, reached the border on Oct. 5, Atouba said. "When we arrived in Banki, we heard gunshots. Nobody knew where they came from, but the refugees panicked and made a run for it. To my disbelief, the Nigerian military started firing to stop them getting away," Atouba told Thomson Rooters Foundation. "There was no mercy, no respect for human life. Some was struck down in his prime. We recovered the maimed and drove them back to Cameroon where they could get treatment. I never imagined they would shoot to kill unarmed people. They might have been Boko Haram, we'll never know, but nobody deserves that," said Atouba, who declined to use his real name for security reasons. The Banki shootings have drawn criticism from the U.N. refugee agency, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which in a press statement on Tuesday questioned the ethics of the Cameroonian security forces for sending people back into an area of known insecurity. In a statement, the UNHCR said it had been alarmed by reports of the attempted forced return of 111 people from Cameroon to Nigeria. In light of the security situation in northeastern Nigeria, people fleeing are likely to meet the criteria for refugee status as outlined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, it said. Posted by: Fred 2013-11-01 |
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