A report by IRIN (originally the Integrated Regional Information Networks), published on 2 November and based on visits to Nigeria’s NE region which the military has retaken from the Boko Haram insurgency, reveals an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in the Lake Chad Basin region.
Syrian refugees who have the means head for their country of choice, armies of aid workers and volunteers helping them along the way. But in West Africa, Nigerians displaced by Boko Haram have relatively little help and find refuge where they can, IRIN says in its report. ‘Fleeing Boko Haram: nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.’
Some walk hundreds of miles, crossing the border into neighbouring Chad, Niger or Cameroon. The majority remains as internally displaced people in Nigeria, reliant on the kindness of friends or extended family to get by, or crowded into schools converted into unsanitary camps.
