Reports from the United Nations and nations neighboring Nigeria are reporting that as many as 20,000 have fled Nigeria after recent Boko Haram terrorist attacks. This diaspora of Nigerians fleeing their nation have gone to neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. Nigerians have fled their nation over the past 10 days after the Boko Haram attack on the Nigerian Borno state and the town of Baga.  Refugee status on Nigerians fleeing the Boko Haram terrorism have been coming in from the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR), neighboring nations to nations, and the news media.

The Boko Haram terrorism has led to 135,000 Nigerians fleeing their nation, and 850,000 displaced individuals from Nigerian areas attacked by terrorism. The majority of the refugees are women and girls fleeing the terrorist violence of their Nigerian homeland.

Reuters is reporting that “In the past 10 days, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates 6,000 Nigerian refugees have fled east into Cameroon and a further 1,500 have gone north to seek shelter in Niger. Chad estimates 13,000 people have entered its western Lake Chad region. Some have drowned in their attempt to flee, others have been left stranded on lake islands awaiting rescue boats.

The UNCHR has reported that more than 7,000 Nigerians have fled the Boko Haram terrorism for the nation of Chad, as a result of the recent attacks in the past 10 days in Nigeria’s Borno state. Chad is now hosting more than 10,000 refugees from Nigeria.

Nigerians Fleeing to Chad Waiting to be Registered by UNCHR (Source: UNCHR, Chad Red Cross, H. Abdoulaye)

At the end of November, the UNCHR reported that Boko Haram terrorism in the northern Nigerian town of Damassak left 50 people dead and forced at least 3,000 to flee to the Diffa region in neighboring country of Niger. Most of the refugees were women, children, older people, and some injured.

Nigerian girls who fled to Niger to escape terrorism (Source: UNCHR, H. Caux)

Older Nigerian Children Fled to Niger as Refugees from Terrorism (Source: UNCHR, H. Caux)

During the beginning of November, the UNCHR reported that 13,000 Nigerians fled Boko Haram terrorism for the nation of Cameroon in late October: “according to Cameroonian authorities, some 13,000 Nigerian refugees crossed from Adamawa state after insurgents attacked and captured the town of Mubi in late October. The refugees fled to the towns of Guider and Gashiga in the North region of Cameroon and to Bourha, Mogode and Boukoula in the Far North.”

Nigerian Refugees Flee to Cameroon from Terrorism (Source: UNCHR, D. Mbairoem)

The News Nigeria reports: “The United Nations on Tuesday said that the latest wave of Boko Haram’s ‘vicious, ruthless attacks’ in northeastern Nigeria had sent 11,320 people fleeing into Chad in a matter of days. The Islamist group stormed the town of Baga on January 3, and subsequently razed it and at least 16 surrounding settlements. While it has been impossible for aid workers to enter the area to verify accounts of the slaughter and of corpses rotting in the streets, the attack is feared to have been the worst massacre since Boko Haram’s deadly insurgency began in 2009. Some 20,000 people are said to have fled their homes in the area since the attack, and the UN refugee agency said Tuesday that some 11,320 people had arrived in neighbouring Chad alone. A full 60 percent of the new arrivals in Chad were women and girls, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters, adding that 84 unaccompanied children had also crossed over. Another 2,000 people had become stranded on an island in Lake Chad during their desperate escape, he said, adding that UNHCR was working to transport them to the mainland.”

The UNCHR states “the conflict in north-east Nigeria has led to the exodus of 135,000 people – around 35,000 Nigerians to Cameroon and 10,000 to Chad and the displacement of at least 850,000 people within Nigeria’s Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.”