By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA—The United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, has lamented the growing wave of social displacement in the world, saying that over 10 million people are now stateless. Of the figure, nearly a million are found in West Africa.

The UNHCR also called on both Nigeria and Cameroun to do more for the displaced residents of Bakassi Peninsula.

Speaking at a joint forum on ending statelessness organised by UNHCR and ECOWAS, yesterday in Abuja, UNHCR Deputy Representative for Protection, Ms. Brigitte Mukanga-Eno, said that stateless people could become disenchanted and susceptible to being recruited as armed fighters, as experienced in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Over 10 million people are without nationality and about one million of them are found in West Africa.” she lamented.

She recalled how the 2002 judgment of the International Court of Justice, ICJ, caused the displacement in the Bakassi Peninsula, saying while residents who opted for Nigerian nationality are currently internally displaced, those who decided to stay back in their ancestral land are now stateless.

“In Nigeria, the 2002 ICJ decision on the Bakassi Peninsula said Bakassi belonged to Cameroun, but what of the people living in Bakassi? Not much has been done to cater for them, though there was a 10-year window for the residents to either opt for Nigeria or Camerounian nationality. Most of them opted for Nigeria because they were hitherto Nigerians and so they moved from their ancestral land to Nigeria and are now internally displaced,” she added.