Some of thousands of Nigerians told to leave neighbouring Niger in the past week due to threats from Boko Haram militants have died en route from lack of food and water, evacuees told Reuters. Niger has evacuated Nigerians living around Lake Chad, military and aid officials told Reuters on Tuesday, as the armies of four west African nations battle to quash the Islamist militants.
“I counted over 50 people that died on our way out of (the town of) Lalewa when the Niger soldiers were chasing us as if we are animals,” said 45-year old Ibrahim, one of the group who was originally from Nigeria’s Kebbi state. The United Nations humanitarian coordinator OCHA said that 25,000 people had arrived in the towns of N’Guigmi and Bosso in southeastern Niger after fleeing their island homes on Lake Chad. OCHA said most of these families needed shelter, food and water.
The governor of Niger’s Diffa region initially told people to leave by Monday for security reasons after an attack by Nigeria-based Boko Haram, which killed 74 people. The deadline has been extended to Thursday evening. A six-year insurgency by Boko Haram in Nigeria has seen thousands killed and displaced about 1.5 million people in the country.
Nigerians who fled to the Nigerian border said they had been called out of their homes, lined up and brutally hurried out with no supplies. Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Wednesday that at least 6,000 people had fled to Nigeria.
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