The Director General of the Cross River State Emergency Management Agency, Princewill Anyim, has said the agency has what it takes to handle the latest influx of Cameroonian refugees.

Anyim spoke in reaction to the recent influx of no fewer than 8,000 Cameroonian refugees into Cross River and Taraba states in the past two weeks, as reported by the UNHCR,

He said, “It is not that there has been influx that much. We do have a particular number every month. The influx is more in Taraba, not in Cross River. Everything has been put in place to handle the influx.

“We don’t classify it as an emergency. The emergency stage has already passed. The level we are now is developmental stage where we see how we can put structures that can take pressure off the host communities. We don’t classify it as an emergency.

“Because of these elections, they are afraid that the attacks could be on the Anglophone side of Cameroon. They are being cautious. That is why you see them moving through the borders to escape persecution. Everything is in place. We have where they go. We have a hub where they sit. Then we do registration, to know them, take their bio-data and give them their progress number.”

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees had reported that, “almost 8,000 Cameroonian refugees have fled to Nigeria’s eastern and southern states of Taraba and Cross River over the past fortnight, bringing the total Cameroonian refugee population in the country to nearly 60,000 people.”

Culled from PUNCH