29, January 2020
Chad: 6 soldiers killed in suspected Boko Haram attack 0
Six Chadian soldiers were killed and 10 others were injured in an ambush by suspected Boko Haram militants near Tetewa Island in the Lake Chad region on Monday, according to the army.
Chad’s army chief of staff Taher Erda said that the soldiers were on patrol when they were attacked by Boko Haram elements.
“Our forces were looking for Boko Haram elements when they were ambushed around Mandrari, a place with lots of tall grass,” a local official also told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The number of jihadist attacks around Lake Chad, which is shared by Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria, has increased in recent months.
Just over a week ago, a female suicide bomber killed 9 civilians in Kaiga Kindjiria village near the lake.
In December, suspected Boko Haram militants killed at least 50 people on an island on Lake Chad, bordering Cameroon and Chad, according to an official.
Earlier this month, Chad ended a months-long mission fighting Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria and withdrew its 1,200-strong force across their common border.
Boko Haram began the insurrection in Nigeria a decade ago, leading to at least 35,000 deaths with violence spilling over into Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
A Boko Haram faction aligned with Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) jihadists is highly active around Lake Chad where the group has training bases on the Niger border and regularly carries out raids on military bases and regional security forces.
Source: AFP
31, January 2020
Southern Cameroons Crisis: Cross River State in Nigeria donates 100 hectares, N800m to Ambazonia refugees 0
Cross River State government said it has donated 100 hectares of land and N800 million to Cameroonian refugees taking refuge in the state.
The House of Assembly Speaker, Eteng Williams, disclosed this yesterday during the Humanitarian Development Nexus meeting between the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), state ministries and international agencies.
He said the land was to enable them farm and be self-employed.
While commending the UN agency for constructing inner city roads, schools, temporary residential blocks and other infrastructure for the refugees, he said that the host communities should also be carried along.
His words, “We need you to carry the state government along as you continue with your commendable involvement and support to ease the burdens of the refugees and host communities. But we need you to provide more boreholes for the refugees and host communities. While we commend you for building school blocks, please remember to provide desks for the children.
“On our part, the state government has since extended a further sum of N800 million and 100 hectares of our lands to enable the refugees do some farming.”
Also speaking, the Chairman of the House Committee on Disaster Management and Humanitarian Crises, Hilary Bisong, accused the Federal Government of bias by allowing Cross River to carry the burden of about 51,723 Cameroonian refugees while focusing on the North East.
Bisong said, “Cross River cannot handle the refugees burden alone because of our very low financial resources. We need support and presence of the Federal Government regarding the huge presence of the Cameroonian refugees in our seven Councils. We commend UNHCR for its humanitarian role.”
Head of the UNHCR sub-office in the state, Mr. Mulugeta Zwedie, said that the expectation of the joint meeting was to recommend ways to ease the burden of the mass influx of refugees in the two major camps of Ogoja and Calabar in Cross River as well as the camp in Benue State.
While commending the states for housing the refugees, Zwedie disclosed that Ogoja happened to be the largest refugees settlement in West Africa.
“In two years, we have extended assistance and impacted the refugees as well as the host communities through partnership, infrastructure, education, capacity building, social protection, healthcare etc.
“To avert social challenges, we still have to sustain continual cash and other assistance to the refugees and host communities until they are able to return. We want close collaboration from the Ministry of International Development and Cooperation and others to ease pressures.”
Source: Guardian.ng