UN Blasts Nigeria Over Cameroon’s Extradition

Posted by African Examiner African News, East/Central Africa, Latest Headlines Thursday, February 1st, 2018

Photo: Sisiku Ayuk Tabe

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The UN refugee agency on Thursday criticised Nigeria for breaching international agreements after the leader of a Cameroonian anglophone separatist movement and his supporters were extradited at Yaounde’s request.

The UNHCR said it learned “with great concern” about the case of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, who was sent back to Cameroon this week with 46 others. They were arrested in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on January 5.

Cameroon has called the 47 “terrorists” and said they would “answer for their crimes”, as tensions mount in the Southwest and Northwest Regions, home to most of the country’s English-speakers. They have complained about decades of economic inequality and social injustice at the hands of the French-speaking majority.

Ayuk Tabe wants the two regions to separate from the French-speaking part of the country. On October 1 last year, his movement made a symbolic declaration of independence.

The UNHCR said most of the 47 sent back to Cameroon had submitted asylum claims in Nigeria. “Their forcible return is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which constitutes the cornerstone of international refugee law,” it said in a statement./Vanguard