No fewer than 300 traumatised Cameroonians taking refuge in Okwangwo, a border community in Boki Local Government Area in Cross River, have received relief materials from an Akwa Ibom-based Non-Governmental Organisation.
Mr John Inaku, the Director-General, Cross River Emergency Relief Agency (CR-SEMA), confirmed the development in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday.
He said the materials were donated by Collective Development Initiative (CDI) in collaboration with the Akwa Ibom State Enterprise and Employment Scheme (AKEES) pencils and toothpick production arm.
Inaku said that the relief materials were the first since the refugees’ arrival about three months ago at the National Park, Okwangwo.
The items included rice, noodles, soap, detergent, flakes, biscuit, notebooks and pencils.
He said that several thousand other refugees following political crises in neighbouring English-speaking parts of Cameroon were in Ukwa 1, Ukwa 2 and Bashu communities of the state.
Inaku, who commended the team for the magnanimity, said that the donation was a booster to the hope of the refugees.
He also assured the refugees that the state and federal governments were concretising plans for full intervention soon.
According to the statement, some of the refugees from the francophone country, who fled to parts of Cross River, have not been attended to.
It also stated the donor team arrived Okwangwo on a two-hour journey from Ikom on motorbikes through bush paths to wild jubilation from the refugees.
The road traversing the national park, canopied by a virgin forest, is in such deplorable state that even on motorcycles most of the journey was made by trekking due to its rocky and slippery nature.
Presenting the materials on-behalf of the donors, the Executive Director, CDI, Amb. Aniefiok Jimmy, said that the donation was born out of the feelings for the sufferings of the Cameroon refugees.
He said that the donors also considered the burden of the host community in caring for the unexpected visitors for the past three months without help from any quarter.
He said that it was disheartening to observe that more than 200 children of school age were out of school on account of the displacement while their parents could barely fend for themselves.
According to Jimmy, the world is not adequately in tune with the humanitarian crisis in Okwangwo and some other communities hosting the Cameroonian refugees hence the lukewarm response to their plights.
He appealed to all humanitarian stakeholders especially the United Nations, the state and federal governments of Nigeria to effectively intervene in the crisis.
He also expressed fears that humanitarian crises from influx of refugees from Cameroon into the area could degenerate further if left unattended.
He promised to mobilise for more relief materials, adding “the token’’ donated was just a preamble and an opportunity to properly access the refugee’s situation.
The General Manager of AKEES, Mr Bassey Friday, said that his organisation would take particular interest in the education of the displaced children by providing more notebooks and pencils to them.
Receiving the relief materials on behalf of the refugees, the Chairman of Okwangwo community, Chief Cyprian Oki, described the donation as a relief not only to the refugees but to the community.
He said the community have been fending for the refugees since arrival about three months ago.
Oki said the difficulty of caring for the refugees rose daily and prompted the community to permit the adult refugees to freely harvest for sale forest fruit and vegetables for their upkeep.
He also called for urgent intervention, adding that some of the challenges faced by the refugees included feeding, accommodation, clothing and beds.
In an interview, the Deputy Head Master of Government Primary School, Okwangwo, Mr Odu Ajah, told NAN that the school authority admitted 336 pupils and prayed for intervention in the areas of school fees and uniforms.
One of the refugees, Mrs Clara Bassey, a mother of three, who alleged that her husband was killed in the crisis, said that she had been passing through difficulties in taking care of the children.
She said that many of the women were passing through similar problems and called for succour from well-meaning individuals and organisations.
