14,000 Nigerians ordered out of Lake Chad islands trying to return home

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday at least 14,000 Nigerians have arrived at the border between Niger and Nigeria since May 6 to try to return to their home country.

"They were taken to a transit camp in Geidam, in Nigeria's Yobe state" in the northern part of the West African country, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"Nigerians have been ordered out of islands in Lake Chad that fall under Niger's control because of a planned military action against Boko Haram, according to local authorities," he said.

"Many of the returnees, who are fishermen and business people, had lived in the Lake Chad region for more than three decades," he said. "It is not yet known how many people are yet to return."

"The humanitarian community calls on all parties affected by the Boko Haram insurgency to ensure the well-being and protection and assistance to civilians (and those) displaced (by) conflict," Dujarric said.

At least five people were killed when militants from Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist group attacked a village in southwestern Niger, reports said on Thursday, adding that the attack occurred overnight Tuesday to Wednesday in the village of Koukodou near the Nigerian border in Niger's Dosso region.

Boko Haram, which is seeking to establish an Islamist emirate in northeast Nigeria, has killed thousands of people during a six- year insurgency, but attacks in Niger have been relatively rare.

The governor of Niger's Diffa region ordered the evacuation of thousands of people living on islands on Lake Chad last week following a deadly attack there by Boko Haram militants late last month. Endite