Borno State, Nigeria, and the neighboring Country, Niger Republic has struck a deal for the return of 130,000 Nigerian refugees.
Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum disclosed this on the sidelines of a G5 Sahel summit in Paris.
President Bazoum noted “… we have set a deadline of the month of November-December for all the refugees from Nigeria who are in the Diffa region (of southeast Niger) to return home, its more than 130,000 people.”
Niger hosts tens of thousands of people who have fled from northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram terrorists launched a bloody campaign a dozen years ago.
Borno has borne the brunt of the conflict, which has killed around 40,000 people and displaced more than two million.
Its authorities are already trying, with limited success, to encourage internally displaced people in Borno to return to their homes.
NIger is also fighting insurgent incursions on two fronts, one on its western border with Mali and another in its southeastern border with Nigeria, in the vast Lake Chad area.
According to the UN, the Diffa region is home to 300,000 Nigerian refugees and displaced people.