Nigeria has over 250,000 refugees in Libya, South Sudan, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and other parts of the world. Conversely, at least 135,000 refugees live in Nigeria. Out of the 250,000 Nigerian refugees, 125,000 are resident in Cameroon. The National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) gave the figures yesterday after a road walk in Abuja to commemorate 2025 World Refugee Day.
The Federal Commissioner of the Commission, Tijani Ahmed, who revealed that the Federal Government has set up a committee to look into a United States that might lead to the deportation of some Nigerians, said: “We have a lot of refugees in Nigeria and outside Nigeria. In Nigeria today, we are hosting no less than 135,000 refugees.
‘’We also have no less than 250,000 Nigerian refugees living in other parts of the world. “Particularly, we have no less than 125,000 Nigerians living in Cameroon. We also have Nigerians in Chad, Niger, South Sudan, Libya, and other parts of the world.
“President Bola Tinubu has been supporting and is willing to offer more support to the commission to assist migrants, refugees and IDPs(Internally Displaced Persons).’’
A Senior Humanitarian Officer at the ECOWAS Commission, Alozie Godfrey, highlighted the efforts of the commission to support persons of concern within the region. He said $9 million was allocated last year to assist refugees in 15 member states.
His words: “Last year, we basically assisted refugees in all ECOWAS 15 member states, and all their persons of concern, to the tune of about $9 million. The government of Nigeria got about $1.7 million of this money. “This year, we are also working to assist refugees and internally displaced persons all around West Africa, and particularly in Nigeria, where we have our headquarters, to make sure that refugees are given the rights they are supposed to get, and make sure that we also assist them.
“ECOWAS Commission remains concerned with issues of refugees, and we will continue to work hand in glove with our partners to make sure that we assist them to the best of our ability, given the lean resources that we have.”
