By Ogbodo Ndidi
BAUCHI, Nigeria
About 200,000 Nigerian refugees, who have been displaced by Boko Haram militants, are currently living in neighboring countries, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has said.
"There are 200,000 refugees from Nigeria in Chad, Cameroon and Niger," UNHCR Regional Representative for West Africa Liz Ahua told reporters in the northeastern Bauchi State on Tuesday.
"We have 100 percent responsibility to support them by providing physical and legal protection for them," Ahua said.
"We work with partners in the three countries to support the refugees with education and medical facilities because they are no more living in their country...so we have to give them adequate support."
Ahua said the displaced persons are willing to return to Nigeria but are dogged by fear of violence perpetrated by Boko Haram militants, who still roam some parts of the northeast.
"These people are traumatized because some of them came from Yobe, Adamawa and others and they spent two to three months before they got to camps where they are staying," she said.
"Some of the women complained of education because their children are out of school and they want them to go back to school. They also complain of school materials to enable them learn in conducive environment."
Ahua said measures are being put in place to ensure the refugees are properly catered for particularly in the food, medical and educational needs.
Nigeria is battling a six-year insurgency by the Boko Haram militant group, with tens of thousands killed and millions displaced.
At the peak of the insurgency in 2013 and 2014, the militants took over large swathe of towns and villages across the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe and conducted deadly attacks on soft and military targets.
But the army, backed by troops from Chad and Niger, has almost neutralized the militants' threat by driving them out of the areas they once occupied and taking battle to their strongholds in Sambisa forest where near a thousand hostages have been freed.
