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African football star Eto'o raises funds for Boko Haram victims

Xinhua, October 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

Cameroonian football star Samuel Eto'o has appealed for funds to help people escaping violence of Islamist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

"There have been many activities of violence by this group now and no one seems to notice the number of displaced people in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria...When you see the population in refugee camps growing from 6,000 to 50,000 people in less than a year, you realize how serious the situation is," Eto'o said in a statement to Xinhua on Friday.

At a fundraising ball in London this week for his Yellow Whistle Blower FC initiative, he said an estimated 50,000 pounds (some 76,500 U.S. dollars) raised so far would be used by Oxfam, a British charity fighting poverty, and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to help the displaced people through providing food, water and medicine for them.

"There is need for governments, humanitarian organizations and donors to scale up their humanitarian support in order to improve the survival of the displaced people," the statement said.

A six-year insurgency by Boko Haram to create an Islamist state in north-eastern Nigeria has killed more a thousand people in Nigeria, and has spread to neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

In Cameroon, it is estimated between 150,000 and 200,000 people living along the border with Nigeria in Far North region have been displaced due to Boko Haram threats.

In recent months, there have been several suicide bombings by Boko Haram members, some of whom were young girls, in Far North.

The Nigerian army, supported by troops from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, is fighting against Boko Haram militants in an effort to end the insurgency. Endite