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2.2 mln persons displaced in Nigeria because of Boko Haram: UNHCR

Xinhua, November 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

The population of Internally Displaced People(IDP) in restive northeast Nigeria had risen to 2.2 million, a top official with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Thursday.

The UNHCR Representative to Nigeria, Angele Dikongue-Atangana gave the statistics in Abuja, the country's capital city during the UNHCR 2015 stakeholders' briefing of the commission's representation in Nigeria.

Dikongue-Atangana told reporters that the increase was not as a result of new displacement.

She also said that the agency would not relent in its humanitarian support to Nigeria, urging partners and donor agencies to assist refugees and displaced persons.

The country representative disclosed that UNHCR had recorded success in its 2015 operational activities in Nigeria including addressing refugee and IDP plights, advocacy on statelessness, and collaboration with ECOWAS.

According to her, the commission in its action plan supervised the voluntary repatriation of 452 Cameroonian refugees back to their country.

She said plans were already in progress to repatriate 165 others back to their country before the end of the year, while resettling others to a third country in Europe, and the U.S.

She said UNHCR was working closely with relevant bodies to ensure that IDPs had their basic rights especially the right to existence, food, shelter, education, security, among other amenities.

The UNHCR representative said that in line with the global campaign in eradicating the scourge, it had engaged the National Assembly in domesticating the frameworks that would prevent and reduce statelessness in Nigeria. Endit