GENEVA, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Nearly 8,000 Cameroon refugees
have fled to eastern and southern Nigeria in the past two weeks,
the United Nations refugee agency said on Thursday, as violence
flared between security forces and separatist insurgents.
The spike in refugees, coming in the run-up to last
weekend's general elections, brings the total number of
Cameroonians who have fled to Nigeria to almost 60,000, the U.N.
agency said.
Conflict between Cameroon's army and English-speaking
militias seeking to form a breakaway state called Ambazonia
began after the government cracked down violently on peaceful
protesters complaining of being marginalised by the
French-speaking majority.
The insurgency has forced half a million people to flee
their homes and presented President Paul Biya with his biggest
challenge since he took power nearly 40 years ago.
The U.N. refugee agency "expects further arrivals as
refugees inform that more people are still in remote border
areas and could be on their way trying to reach Nigeria,"
Thursday's statement said.
"Refugees reported fleeing violence and some even arrived
across the border with gunshot wounds," it said. "According to
new arrivals, most come from areas near the border and have
trekked across savannah and forests to reach Nigeria."
In December, Cameroon's parliament granted special status to
two English-speaking regions to try to calm the conflict, but
the separatists said only independence would satisfy them.
The roots of Cameroonian English speakers' grievances go
back a century to the League of Nations' decision to split the
former German colony of Kamerun between the allied French and
British victors at the end of World War One.