Cameroon: Nigerian Overnight Refugees Worry Cameroon

Minawao Camp — Only around 1,800 of the thousands of Nigerians forced to find refuge from the fighting in the northeast between the jihadist Boko Haram and the Nigerian military have settled in a camp in neighbouring Cameroon. Others are living with relatives in villages along the border, complicating their identification and raising concern by the Cameroonian authorities that insurgents could infiltrate local communities.

The border separating Cameroon and Nigeria often divides villages of similar ethnicity, and local authorities say the Nigerians who have sought safety with their relatives in Cameroon often do not consider themselves refugees, insisting that they are simply visiting family. Groups such as the Hausa or the Fulani are found in northeastern Nigeria as well as Cameroon's Far North region.

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