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Nigeria Regional Refugee Response Plan, August - December 2014

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The aim of this Nigeria Regional Refugee Response Plan is to mobilize support for an inter-agency response to the refugee situation developing in south-east Niger, south-west Chad and northern Cameroon and to present the corresponding emergency programme needs. These countries are affected by a continuing influx of refugees from north-eastern Nigeria seeking safety from attacks by armed insurgents. UNHCR, together with the Governments of the countries of asylum, has already started to establish protection monitoring systems and coordinate initial emergency assistance, in close collaboration with the UN sister agencies, international and national NGOs.

Since 2011, a militant insurgent group in Nigeria operating in the north-eastern Federal States of Yobe, Adamawa and Borno has been carrying out armed attacks on civilian populations in Nigeria. In May 2013, the Government of Nigeria declared a state of emergency with the imposition of curfews. Despite military interventions by the Government, the security crisis has continued to worsen, with growing numbers of victims of killings and abductions, and the destruction of social and economic infrastructures, including the disruption of education services in the affected areas. The conflict has resulted in the deaths of over 3,700 civilians to date and massive internal displacement of populations. An inter-agency mission fielded in May 2014 assessed that the number of conflict-generated IDPs was at that point over 650,000.

Alongside the internal displacement, a growing number of Nigerians are seeking refuge in neighbouring countries:

  • It is estimated there are over 30,000 Nigerian refugees in northern Cameroon, some 20,000 of whom have so far been registered by UNHCR and over 6,000 have been relocated from the border to Minawao camp where multi-sectoral assistance is being provided.

  • Currently, Chad is hosting over 1,000 Nigerian refugees. A second wave of refugees (about 1,000) arrived in August 2014 on Lake Chad’s Choua Island; they are being relocated further away from the border to Ngouboua where the first group was settled last year.

  • More than 50,000 persons have fled Nigeria and sought refuge in the Diffa region of south-east Niger. The group includes Nigerian refugees, returning Niger nationals and third country nationals.

  • In both Niger and Chad, refugees have settled among local communities, whereas in Cameroon, because of the specific security challenges linked to cross-border movements from Nigeria by the insurgents, refugees are being encouraged by the Cameroonian Government to settle in an organized camp (Minawao).

From the outset, UNHCR has been monitoring the evolving situation and providing protection responses and humanitarian assistance, in collaboration with the Governments, other UN agencies and civil society partners. In Cameroon, Chad and Niger contingency plans have been prepared for responding to a possible further deterioration of the situation and increased numbers of forcibly displaced people.