Thousands of people have fled across Nigeria's borders with Cameroon and Niger amid renewed clashes between the Nigerian military and Boko Haram insurgents, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva that 4,000 people had fled to Cameroon since mid-January, and 1,500 to Niger. In northern Cameroon, U.N. aid workers met with refugees from near the town of Banki, which lies just over the border in Nigeria. "The refugees said their villages were bombed, that several people had been killed, and that at least two villages were burned to the ground," Edwards said. Nigerian authorities imposed a state of emergency in three northern states last May in an effort to defeat an insurgency by Boko Haram. Thousands of people have fled across the borders or to other parts of Nigeria to escape attacks by militants or to flee what human-rights groups say is a heavy-handed government crackdown that also has affected civilians. The latest influx increases the number of Nigerian refugees in Cameroon to nearly 12,500. In Niger, those who have fled include 8,000 Nigerians and 30,000 Niger nationals who had been living in Nigeria. The United Nations has appealed to countries in the region to keep their borders open for Nigerians who need a haven, and not to repatriate any refugees.
