Niger Deports 3,000 Nigerians, Including Refugees Fleeing Boko Haram

GAIDAM, Nigeria -- Niger troops have deported
more than 3,000 Nigerian fishermen and refugees
escaping Boko Haram, forcing them to undertake
a brutal three- day trek in which at least a dozen
people died, an official and witnesses said
Wednesday.
The refugees said they were compelled to return
to Nigeria after Boko Haram last week attacked an
island in Lake Chad.
The Nigerians said soldiers arrived at the fishing
village of Lelewa and ordered them to leave. Niger
officials did not immediately respond to request
for comment.
On Monday, Niger said it was planning a military
operation in the area to rout Boko Haram
extremists and ordered its citizens to move
further inland.
Nigeria's National Emergency
Management Agency said it was alerted by Niger
and sent trucks to collect the exhausted refugees
at
the border.
The agency's Charles Otegbabe, director of
search and rescue, registered the new arrivals in
Gaidam town, in the northeastern Borno state.
"We thought there would be about 2,000 but we
have already registered more than 3,000 and
there are still more people coming," he told The
Associated Press.
The refugees said hundreds more were on their
way.
"They didn't even give us time to collect our
clothes. We had to abandon everything," said
Lubabatu Isa, a 21-year-old carrying a baby
strapped to her back.
Isa and Nura Auwal, another refugee, said about
a dozen people died during the three-day walk to
the border. Auwal said they included a woman,
Fatima Hassan, and her newborn twins.
"There was no water. It was very hot. They
collapsed and died. Nobody had any energy left
to help
them and we just had to leave them in the bush,"
said a distressed Auwal, 22.
Niger is hosting more than 100,000 other
Nigerian refugees who have fled Boko Haram and
who apparently are being allowed to remain in
camps outside the Lake Chad area.