Some prominent human rights’ activists in Nigeria have demanded the release of the Vice-President of American University Nigeria (AUN), Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and nine others arrested by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigerian Police Force since 2018.

Tabe and other scholars were arrested by the then SARS operatives in January 2018 at Nera Hotel, Abuja, as alleged members of Ambazonia, also known as English-speaking Cameroon or Southern Cameroon and they had been illegally detained since then in Cameroon.

Despite the court ruling in 2019 that ordered the Nigerian government to unconditionally release them and a payment of N200milllion (about $500,000) to each for aggravated damages, the Cameroonian dons had remained in detention.

However, the activists including Omoyele Sowore; former Chairman of Nigerian Human Rights Commission and lawyer, Prof Chidi Odinkalu, and Executive Director, Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), Dr Uju Agomoh, have called for their release.

They also urged all students across universities, colleges and faculties to join in the struggle for the freedom of the scholars.

They disclosed these in a statement, “Call for SARS to Release and Return the Vice President of the American University of Nigeria and his Colleagues Now” made available to SaharaReporters on Tuesday.

The statement reads, “January 5, 2022, will mark four years since American University of Nigeria (AUN)’s Vice President and his colleagues have been illegally imprisoned after being snatched by Nigeria’s notoriously corrupt and ruthless paramilitary police known as SARS.

“The victims, leaders of the Ambazonian community living in Nigeria who have come to be known as the “Nera 10,” were meeting at the Nera Hotel to plan a meeting with the UNHCR regarding the plight of tens of thousands of refugees from Ambazonia (also known as English-speaking Cameroon or Southern Cameroon), who have been pushed across the border by the violent actions of the Cameroonian military.

“Those arrested include: Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Recruitment at American University of Nigeria (AUN) — Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Assistant Professor of Computing, Director of the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness, and Vice Chair of the Institutional Review Board AUN — Dr. Fidelis Ndeh-Che, Head of the Surgery Unit of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Ahmadu Bello University — Prof. Augustine Awasum, Associate Professor of Geology, Ahmadu Bello University — Dr. Henry Kimeng, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics, Yar’adua University — Dr. Cornelius Kwanga; Others are Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Bayero University — Dr. Egbe Ogork, Union organizer and Leader of the Teachers Unions and the Federation of Parent Teachers Union (CAPTAC) — Mr. Wilfred Tassang, Human Rights lawyer and Legal Worker Organizer — Barrister Shufai Berinyuy, Human Rights lawyer and Legal Worker Organizer — Barrister Eyambe EliasCivil Society leader — Dr. Nfor Ngalla Nfor.

“SARS was apparently acting in a back-room arrangement with next door Cameroon, which is controlled by the longest running dictatorship on earth, a French neocolonial regime. After holding these educators and civil rights leaders for three weeks, SARS in violation of their fundamental human rights and the international legal principle of non-refoulement, illegally handed them to Cameroon.

“Fourteen months later, in a sharp rebuke to the SARS and the Nigerian administration, the Federal High Court in Abuja issued a ruling that this abduction of the Nera 10 had violated Nigerian and international law.

“The Court ordered the Federal Government of Nigeria to ensure their immediate and unconditional release and return to Nigeria, and make a payment of two hundred million Naira (about five hundred thousand US Dollars) to each for aggravated damages.

“Yet, nearly three years later, no action has been made to implement the court’s decision. Instead, the Cameroon regime has continued and escalated a campaign of mass arrests, torture, arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances of teachers, students and civil society leaders from the targeted community.

“Activists on the ground estimate at least 3000 university lecturers, students, lawyers, trade unionists, human rights activists and journalists are being held in horrendous conditions in various detention facilities across the territory controlled by Cameroon solely for advocating for the rights and dignity of their community.

“They are being detained arbitrarily and many have spent years in prison without being charged or tried, with many reported cases of torture, squalid conditions, health neglect, and outright disappearances.

“On this sombre anniversary, we demand that SARS and the Nigerian and Cameroon governments respect the March 1, 2019, High Court decision and immediately return AUN Vice President Sisiku AyukTabe and his colleagues to their families and students.

“We call on faculty, staff, students, and human rights supporters worldwide to take action to demand the immediate rectification of this travesty of justice. Please contact the ambassadors and political leaders in your country who are responsible for maintaining relationships with Nigeria and Cameroon, and ask that they publicly demand the return of the “Nera 10” to their families and students.

“Examples of such ambassadors and political leaders include the US Secretary of State, UK Foreign Secretary, EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and the German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, etc.”

Source: Sahara Reporters

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has called on the international community to urgently support over 70,000 Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria.

The UN agency said that nearly 80 per cent of these people are women and children.

“This is not just a number, these are people behind these numbers, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, people just like you and I, that have been forced to flee their homes to seek safety and save their lives,” says UNHCR’s Country Representative Chansa Kapaya. “70,000 refugees are 70,000 daughters and sons.”

Their dreams and plans were disrupted by violence in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon where a conflict between secessionist Non-State Armed Groups and the army has been displacing people from their homes since 2017. Recent arrivals and UNHCR’s protection monitoring confirm killings, abductions, forced evictions and other forms of violence, with armed groups attacking schools and hospitals.

Over 8,000 Cameroonian women, men and children have arrived in Nigeria’s Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Benue, Enugu, Cross River and Taraba States in the past 12 months, many in hard- to -reach rural areas. UNHCR, together with the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and IDPs, registered them. 59 percent found refuge in local communities. The rest live in four settlements which UNHCR helped build on land generously provided by the government.

Nigeria has a progressive open-door approach to refugees, allowing refugee girls and boys to go to school just like nationals and their parents to work where they can. With support from UNHCR, Nigeria provides primary health care to refugees and nationals alike. “UNHCR commends Nigeria because it is on its way to become a champion in implementing the Global Compact on Refugees,” says UNHCR’s Representative Chansa Kapaya, “but Nigeria needs support”. The most pressing needs of Cameroonian refugees are food, shelter, improved health care and education as well as livelihood opportunities.

With rising food prices, the economic hit of COVID-19 and the refugee influx, needs are on the rise with serious risks of gender-based violence and negative copying mechanisms such as begging and survival sex. The amount of support UNHCR can deliver is increasingly falling short. Cash for food, for instance, had to be reduced from 2019 due to insufficient funding.

US$97.7 million is needed to respond to the needs of a total of some 78,000 refugees and asylum-seekers of different nationalities and to IDP needs – protection, camp management/coordination, shelter and non-food items such as blankets and jerry cans.

So far, not even half of this amount (45 per cent, as of 23 November) has been received. UNHCR calls on donors and development agencies not to forget Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria.

Source: Vanguard

Borno South Senator, Ali Ndume has rejected the idea that the recent attack by Ambazonia fighters on a community in Taraba State is a threat on the territorial integrity of Nigeria.

He said what happened should not be viewed as an attack by the separatist group or Cameroon on Nigeria as a country.

According to the lawmaker, the area of attack is a border community between Nigeria and Cameroon, hence based on information available so far on the incident, what happened was a communal clash.

Ndume said Ambazonia is a “stateless” group that cannot challenge the territorial integrity of Nigeria, adding that the government must take measures to protect those staying in border communities.

“I don’t want you to take it the way you say now like an external aggression. I have listened to the governor, this is more of communal or tribal conflict that affect communities along our borders,” he said.

Taraba State Governor Darius Ishaku had claimed that Ambazonia separatist militants from Cameroon attacked Takum LGA of Taraba State killing the village head and some residents of Manga community.

Reacting to the Nigerian governor’s take on the Taraba attack, the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima issued a statement saying “We have not taken this war to La Republique du Cameroun, there is no reason whatsoever for our Liberation fighters to take it to a friendly neighboring country. Our liberation fighters have no motive or interest to invade another friendly Anglo-Saxon country.”

The Ambazonia Vice President furthered “On the 10th of November 2020, Buhari was in Paris with Macron shortly after French Cameroun soldiers illegally entered into Taraba State (Nigeria) for unknown reasons and caused havoc on the people living in that community. This shameful heinouscrime perpetuated by Paul Biya’s military Junta on part of another sovereign country was reported by the Daily post of Nigeria on the 22nd of October 2021. It is believed Paris invited Buhari to cool down the tension and influence him to come up with a whitewash story through another news tabloid in Nigeria so as to continue to manipulate the people of Taraba and the world.”

By Chi Prudence Asong with files

Taraba State Governor, Darius Dickson Ishaku, has expressed fear over the invasion and activities of terror armed men in the state.

The governor alleged that there are some Amazonian terrorists infiltrating the state and causing mayhem.

Ishaku called on the federal government to as a matter of urgency order the deployment of troops to border communities to halt the chaotic activities of the terror armed men.

He alleged that the terrorists from Cameroon have been unleashing terror on the residents of the state.

Governor Ishaku stated this while reacting to the recent attacks by soldiers from Cameroon on Manga village in Takum Local Government council.

Noting that the call for protection of the borders has become necessary, the governor who appeared on Channels Television on Thursday said Taraba has one of the longest borders with the Republic of Cameroon.

Passionately seeking the presence of security personnel in the State to man the border, he said, “there is an absolute need that this boundary must be manned by security agencies,” stressing that, “the military, precisely must man it.”

Stressing on how heavily armed the Cameroonian separatist group are, Governor Ishaku said; “they are a separatist group,” adding that “when they kill, they run away.”

Admitting that, ”It is not an easy thing, ” he emphasized that the military should be the ones to be deployed to the border communities.

Ishaku lamented that he had previously asked the military to help secure the border but that his appeal was treated with kid gloves.

Source: Naija.com

The National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (Retd), has said that separatist agitations in some parts of the West African region were gaining global attention due to international sympathy.

Monguno stated this in paper he presented at the Nigeria International Partnership Forum in Paris, France, titled: “Combating Persistent and Emerging Threats to Regional Peace and Security in Africa: Pivotal Role of Nigeria”.

He said most of Nigeria’s contemporary security problems are influenced or heightened by external threat factors in the global environment.

Therefore, “We are also exploring the feasibility of setting up a border security force in the foreseeable future to secure Nigeria’s border areas,” he said.

He added: “The activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in Nigeria as well as the activities of Ambazonian separatists in Cameroon have attracted international sympathy mainly from sympathisers in the Diaspora.

“It should however be noted that the Nigerian government has never prevented the freedom of expression or agitation; however, the violent confrontation and engagement of security forces by these groups usually translates into fatalities and other grave consequences.

“While we continue to extend dialogue as the main medium for resolving conflicts in the country, the Nigerian government will continue to discharge its responsibility of ensuring the safety of lives and property against any criminal activity by IPOB or any separatist group.”

He expressed concern that rapid population growth which puts tremendous pressure on states to compete for energy, water and food to support life and economic and societal development; a growing cyber awakening in which perceptions of inequality and other grievances are heightened, leading to social tension and conflicts; a continuation of ideological extremism, driven by religious or ethnic differences; and climate change that could prompt shifts in agricultural patterns and food production are likely to trigger humanitarian crises, if not appropriately addressed.

“All these global security challenges have the potential to undermine national security and by implication national development,” he said.

The NSA said Africa’s porous borders remain a major source of concern as this has aided smuggling of prohibited items and irregular migration as well as other transnational organised crimes.

On present efforts, he said the Nigeria Customs Service has developed the E- Customs strategy while the Nigeria Immigrations Service has equally put in place an Integrated Border Management System (IBMS).

He noted that both strategies place premium on employing technology to complement other existing physical border security arrangements.

Source: Gistmaster

Cross River government had decried the influx of over 150, 000 Internally Displaced Persons (IPDs) and over 50,000 refugees from Cameroon residing in various parts of the communities across the state.

Speaking during a workshop on Children of Rural Africa- Nigeria (COR Africa) held at Transcorp Hotel, Calabar, the Cross River Director General DG, Migration and Control Agency, Prince Mike Abua, said it is high time federal government and the International Commission for Migrants, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons conducted a comprehensive survey in the state so as to ascertained the number of migrants, refugees and persons who had been Internally displaced in the state.

Speaking on the topic Agro-business and Education Opportunities for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced, Abua said it would be easy for a database to be built to enable the government has a full grasp of actual migrants and refugees figure in Cross River.

According to him, there are 150,000 Internally Displaced Persons as a result of civil unrest occasioned by inter- tribal / communal clashes for mere parcel of land about fifty thousand displaced after Bakassi was handed over  to the Cameroons and are  still currently being held up in bad condition in Obanlikwu local government.

He added that the database would also help government to plan ahead of time in terms of infrastructure and facilities that can provide succor to  the refugees and the internally displaced.

Source: Daily Sun