Day: January 19, 2022

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Cameroon’s Nigerian Refugees, Displaced Cheer Super Eagles at AFCON

YAOUNDE — Nigerian football fans are cheering their team, the Super Eagles, at home and in Cameroon, which is hosting the Africa Football Cup of Nations tournament. That includes hundreds of Nigerian refugees and people displaced by Boko Haram terrorism along the border with Cameroon.

Cameroon’s state CRTV shows Nigerian football fans singing the Nigerian national anthem and cheering for its national football team, the Super Eagles, in northern Garoua city.

Garoua is hosting the Africa Football Cup of Nations, or the AFCON, group matches for teams from Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, and Sudan.

The Confederation of African Football says thousands of Nigerian supporters have come to Garoua, but hundreds of them didn’t have to travel far.

Nigerian Mohamed Tchiroma Fayiza, 19, has lived in Cameroon’s Minawao refugee camp, on the border with Nigeria, for six years. She fled her village in Nigeria’s northeast Borno state after Boko Haram militants attacked their school.

Speaking on CRTV, she says authorities helped her and more than 20 other female team Nigeria supporters to watch the AFCON matches in Garoua.

“I have come to support Nigeria because it [Nigeria] is my country,” she said. “Anyway, I go, I can never forget my country. I can never forget Nigeria. I want Nigeria people{players} to play very well and win this match [tournament.].”

The U.N.’s refugee agency (UNHCR) says there are 68,000 Nigerian refugees in Cameroon’s Minawao camp.

They elected Isaac Luka, who has lived in the camp since 2014, as their leader.

Luka also fled Borno state in June 2014 after Boko Haram terrorists killed more than 20 people in his village, including his family.

Speaking from Garoua, he says cheering on Nigeria’s football team shows how much the refugees love their country and hope for peace so they can one day return home.

“I take [consider] football as a way [means] of resolving problems,” he said. “If you look at the match [between] Sudan and Nigeria, you know Nigeria is facing security challenges. Sudan is facing security challenges. If the two [Sudan and Nigerian] refugees can come together and watch their players on the field, it is something that can bring unity among the refugees.”

Luka says the refugees cheered the Nigerian team to a 1-0 victory over Egypt last week and a 3-1 victory over Sudan on Saturday.

Nigeria plays their third group match against Guinea-Bissau Wednesday.

The UNHCR says they helped at least a hundred Nigerian refugees in Cameroon get to stadiums to watch AFCON matches.

UNHCR in Cameroon spokesman Xavier Bourgois says they believe strongly in the power of sports.

“People [refugees] and especially young people [refugees] also have the right to enjoy like everybody else and so when we have these kinds of opportunities to bring the refugees into the stadium, of course we do it with a lot of pleasure. Most of the refugees come from very difficult places, they suffered a lot. They have a difficult history and so that was an opportunity for us to tell them to rebuild themselves,” he said.

Cameroonian authorities say besides the refugees, several hundred Nigerians displaced by Boko Haram terrorists are also in Garoua to support the Nigerian football team.

Source: Voice of America

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Police Investigating Bodies Dumped in Western Kenya

NAIROBI — Kenyan police say they are sending investigators to the Yala River in western Kenya, where locals have been finding bodies tied up in sacks.

The Yala River in western Kenya has become the center of attention for human rights workers and families of missing persons.

Local residents say five bodies have been found in the river this month alone, including one discovered Wednesday.

Nicholas Okero is among the divers who have retrieved bodies from the river.

“The bodies are tied up tightly, like a parcel, in a sack. And since July, we’ve got nobody from our area who has reported a missing person,” he said. “Just the other day, I retrieved the bodies of two Somali men again and those people do not reside here. I don’t know where they were killed.”

Okero said he identified the two bodies as Somali based on their physical features. Authorities have yet to determine the identities of any of the people found.

In a statement, local police said the five bodies are among 19 discovered in the river over the last two years. Police say no one has come forward to claim the bodies.

Salome Nduta is the director of Haki Africa, an organization working to promote human rights and justice in Kenya. Her organization visited River Yala and the Yala hospital mortuary Monday.

“When we got to Yala, we went straight to the morgue where we discovered 21 unknown bodies. Most of the bodies were tied up, others were found in sacks and others seemed to have deep cuts. Still, we had some bodies which had polythene on their heads,” she said.

On Wednesday, after the discovery of the five bodies, dozens of family members of missing persons trooped to Yala in Siaya County.

Ismail Okumu, 55, a farmer from Mumias town in western Kenya, is one of them. He is looking for his brother, who was abducted by armed men 18 months ago.

“I am at Yala mortuary searching for my brother’s body. He was arrested on August 10, 2020, at 1 pm. I have never found him. I have searched in all mortuaries but I never found him. Whenever I hear there are bodies found somewhere, I go there,” he said.

Bodies have turned up in other Kenyan rivers under mysterious circumstances. Last September, 11 bodies were recovered in the Tana River in Garissa County.

Source: Voice of America

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