The U.N refugee agency has said that some 30,000 people have fled Nigeria into Cameroon fearing Boko Haram attacks.
UNHCR says the movement of these people from the Nigerian city of Rann happened over the weekend.
Spokesman for the UNHCR Babar Baloch told a U.N. briefing in Geneva on Tuesday that a lot of people panicked due to the exit of the Multinational Joint Task Force.
The task force had been stationed in the city of Rann to stop Boko Haram attacks.
“Because Cameroon is part of the Multi-National Joint Task Force, their military went in to secure Rann. So it was … peaceful (for a while) but as far as we understand now, that Multi-National Task Force has left,” Baloch said.
There are reports of Boko Haram fighters warning of returning to the city to launch attack forcing residents to flee.
Baloch says “So all the population seems to be panicking and they are on the run as a pre-emptive measure to save their lives. This is quite worrying and alarming.”
Cameroon officials have however refused to grant asylum to many of those who fled Rann.
Nigeria’s government has struggled to contain the activities of the militant group despite President Buhari promising to defeat them.
Source: Africafeeds.com
