One refugee emergency from the UNHCR is the attack in West Africa by the extremist group called Boko Haram. “In Nigeria alone, nearly 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes in the last six years of violence caused by Boko Haram’s campaign of terror and more than 20,000 lives have been lost. In 2014, some 170 villages were burnt to the ground and thousands of women and girls were abducted.” The refugees are left with no place to go home because they are so afraid that Boko Haram will recapture them if they return to their village. They also can’t stay in refugee camps because there is not enough food or water for them to survive in these camps.
The current situation of these refugees is especially dangerous because the smugglers that take them across the border into Nigeria pay them a fraction of what it costs to cross legally and then send them back to their homes in Nigeria. When Boko Haram took over all of these refugee’s land, they also took their cattle herds with them, so the refugees almost immediately lost everything. “The NRC says 1.5 million Nigerian children are at risk of malnutrition and 150,000 schools have been destroyed.” These refugees are also hungry because they are being forced to work long hours on jobs that do not pay enough money in order for them to make money for food.
