The Nigerian Government has started building the third refugee camp in Cross River State for Cameroonian refugees, because of increasing number of refugees fleeing hostilities in their home country into Nigeria. The Comptroller of Immigration in the State command of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Okey Ezugwu, made that known over the weekend when he hosted a four-man delegation from the Switzerland government.

The delegation came to inspect immigration projects like the immigration Personnel Training Resource Centre (PTRC) funded by the Swaziland Government. Prior to the new project, there were two refugee camps in Cross River; one located in Ogoja Local Government Area and another in Akamkpa Local Government Area.

The third one will be cited in the central senatorial district of the state.

This was disclosed last week on the occasion of the Humanitarian Development Nexus meeting between the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), state ministries and international agencies. The head of the UNHCR sub-office in the state, Mr Mulugeta Zwedie, confirmed that the the number of Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria was 51,723, and 65% of them have taken shelter in Cross River State.

He remarked that the Ogoja refugee camp is the largest refugee settlement in West Africa. The Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Eteng Jonas Williams, revealed that the state had mapped out 100 hectares of land to allow the refugees farm with a support of N800 million to relieve their economic burdens.

Source: Daily Trust

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.