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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Boko Haram Refugees Find No Shelter in Remote Northern Cameroon |
| 2016-11-30 |
| [VOA News] The U.N. refugee agency reports that thousands of Nigerian refugees massed along a remote border area in northern Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... are living in dire conditions, with little in the way of shelter and basic necessities. Prevailing insecurity makes Cameroon’s isolated Far North Region generally out-of-bounds for aid workers. But, a rare break in the threatening environment made it possible for staff from the U.N. refugee agency to go there earlier this month and assess the situation. UNHCR front man Leo Dobbs tells VOA the refugees, mostly women and kiddies, are living in abysmal conditions and remain under threat of attack by 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... hard boys. "Some staying with destitute host families, but most sleeping in the open under the trees, makeshift shelters or on the dirt floors of schools," Dobbs said. "Others were in abandoned villages whose residents had fled Boko Haram attacks earlier. A number of families were separated while crossing into Cameroon." Dobbs says the refugees are almost entirely dependent on the local community, which is itself poor. He says people lack health care and sanitation, safe drinking water and other basic services. |
| Posted by:Fred |