Unic Press UK: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said yesterday that the forced return of refugees from Cameroon into the northeastern part of Nigeria that was ravaged by the Boko Haram, an Islamist terror organisation, is alarming as the situation in this part of Nigeria remain unsafe.
“The involuntary return of refugees must be avoided under any circumstances. In addition, returns to Nigeria put a strain on the few existing services and are not sustainable at this time. A new emergency, just as the rainy season is starting, has to be avoided at all costs”, said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
The UN reports that the latest incident, the forced return of refugees, occurred on Tuesday, the 27th June 2017, when circa 900 Nigerian refugees were repatriated to Banki, Nigeria, in trucks that were provided by the Nigerian military and Cameroonian police.
Banki, one of the towns in northeast Nigeria that had been ravaged by the notorious Jihad terrorist group known as Boko Haram, is currently the home to thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) who suffer privation.
About the Boko Haram
- Jama’atu Ahl as‐Sunnah li‐Da’awati wal‐Jihad [simply called Boko Haram] is a Jihad-driven terrorist organisation that was founded in 2002 by one Mohammed Yusuf. This terror group held the belief that Western education/lifestyles were completely against the teachings of Islam.
- M Yusuf, the founder/spiritual head of Boko Haram was ‘extrajudicially’ executed in 2009 after the group clashed with Nigerian Police Forces in 2009.
- The end of Yusuf’s earthly life in the hands of Nigerian security operatives is widely seen as a critical turning point in the history of the Boko Haram. Many have contended that the killing of Yusuf further radicalized his followers, thereby escalating a bad crisis.
- It was after the killing of Yusuf that this terror group commenced full military operations in 2009, killing more than 15,000 people as of 2016.
- They have attacked a number of places, including military barracks, police stations, churches, mosques, motor park stations, United Nations building in Nigeria’s federal capital territory, and so on.
- In 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Daesh (Islamic State).
- Boko Haram’s goals center on Islamization of Nigeria, to enforce sharia law throughout the gamut of Nigeria. This goal is utter delusion as Nigeria is a secular state, a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country of circa 200 million people. More than 50% of Nigeria’s population are Christians, most of whom reside in the southern part of the country.
- Abubukar Shekau, an eccentric character who appears deluded by virtue of his utterances in Boko Haram’s numerous videos, is the head of the main group. This is one man the Nigerian security forces had claimed several times to have killed, but each time the news of his death circulates, the man Shekau rises from nowhere proclaiming to the world that he is still alive.
- In 2015, the Global Terrorism Index, published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, said that Boko Haram topped the ranking of terror groups having killed 6,644 people in Nigeria in 2014 when compared to Daesh’s tally of 6,074 people in the same period.
