By Ibrahim Abdul’Aziz
Yola
At least 56, 000 Nigerian refugees in Cameroon will soon be repatriated to Nigeria through Adamawa state, Governor Muhammadu Ummaru Jibrilla said yesterday.
The governor, who stated this when he hosted the Country Director, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Ms Sarah Ndikumana, urged the organisation as well as other humanitarian agencies to come to the aid of the state in view of the mass- scale deportation.
He said his administration had started forming synergy with humanitarian and security agencies to ensure that security as well as welfare of the deportees was taken care of across the various locations where they would be settled.
The governor said his administration had already procured large consignments of foodstuff and other essentials, but that the state government needed support in view of the unprecedented number.
He said: “We are used to handling around 10, 000 IDPs at the peak of the insurgency but when you are talking of 56, 000 people you are talking of people about the size of big towns and cities.
“Taking charge of such people is equally a big task but we are grateful to President Buhari for the assistance he has been according to us on the issue of IDPs.”
In her response, Ms Ndikumana said with the success recorded in the war against insurgency, their focus was shifting from providing nutrition to the provision of water, sanitation and shelter in the recaptured areas.
She said they were extending their frontiers to 11 local governments in Borno state in their quest to maintain partnership with other states affected by insurgency.
