“Fleeing Boko Haram: Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide”

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The Boko Haram insurgency has claimed more than 25,000 lives in the past six years. Humanitarian news service IRIN would like to share a new in-depth feature: “Fleeing Boko Haram: Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide” highlighting a conflict that has displaced more than 2.5 million people in the Lake Chad Basin region since May 2013, which is around four times the number of migrants and refugees that have arrived in Europe so far this year.

Although the conflict has dropped off the mainstream news agenda, border areas where refugees flee in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger are increasingly under attack. Scores of people have been killed in the last few weeks in a string of suicide bombings in the main northeastern cities where they seek refuge. So pervasive is the insurgency, it is even starting to strike the displacement camps where the most desperate seek help. The feature includes reporting from around the region, in Maiduguri, Kaduna and Yola in Nigera, and Kousseri in Cameroon.

The Diffa region of Niger – originally a place of refuge for scores of refugees from the North Eastern part of Nigeria, has also fallen victim to the violence of Boko Haram. The first attacks on Nigerien territory occurred in February 2015 and there have been numerous attacks since then. For more information on attacks within the Diffa region see OCHA infographic, available at: https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/Niger/Diffa_Incidents_Securite_07102015.pdf