The Nigerian government says it has agreed to Cameroon’s return of some 80,000 Nigerian citizens who fled the country following the insurgency by the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group. Nigerian emergency agency spokesman Sani Datti said on Sunday that Abuja signed an agreement with the UN Refugee Agency, also known as the UNHCR, and Cameroon for the return of Nigerian refugees “voluntarily and in a dignified manner.”

Nigerian officials have said that the neighboring Cameroon was threatening to force the repatriation of tens of thousands of Nigerians who left their homes in the eastern regions to flee from Boko Haram’s terrorist activities. Last month, Cameroon dumped a large number of Nigerians at the border though people did not have enough water and temperature soared over 42 degrees Celsius.

The UN said that some 600,000 Nigerians are displaced in the region. An estimated 20,000 people have been killed and more than two million others made homeless since the beginning of the bloody Boko Haram militancy in Nigeria in 2009. In 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Daesh, which is primarily operating in Syria and Iraq.

Presstv