Eleven Killed in Suicide Attack Using Children in Cameroon Camp
Two children detonated explosives, killing themselves and nine others, in a displacement camp in northern Cameroon.
The children, aged between 10 and 15 years old, posed as refugees searching for food in Kolofata, near the Nigerian border, officials said. Another 30 people were injured.
“It was unbearable. People were screaming. Others were moaning. It was total horror,” a policeman told Reuters.
The insurgency by Boko Haram militants, who regularly use children and women as suicide bombers, in the Lake Chad region straddling the Cameroon-Nigeria border has displaced 2.7 million people.
Last week, a group of aid organizations warned that thousands of refugees were returning from Cameroon to Nigeria, where there are few resources to help them. “We are particularly concerned that these movements may not be voluntary, based on well-informed decisions, or safe,” the statement said.
Poor conditions for refugees in the area have been exacerbated by the start of seasonal rains. At least 4,300 people have been affected by violent storms in Nigeria’s Borno state, which are expected to continue for several months, the International Organization for Migration said.
Far-Right Crowdfunds Campaign to Disrupt Rescue Ships
Far-right activists are crowdfunding an effort to disrupt search and rescue operations for refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, the U.K.’s Observer newspaper reported.
The group has raised over $72,000 in around three weeks to pay for boats, travel costs, film equipment and research, apparently from far-right members of the internet message board 4chan, to track rescue vessels in order to intercept them.
Last month, a French group from the European far-right “Identitarian” movement did a trial run, hiring a boat that blocked a SOS Méditerranée rescue ship leaving Sicily’s Catania port, before the Italian coast guard intervened.
A senior official told the Observer that such vigilante action against rescue efforts had been fueled by political rhetoric against the NGO boats saving lives in the Mediterranean. “When the British government and its European counterparts talk about ‘swarms’ of migrants, or perpetuate the myth that rescue operations are a ‘pull factor’ or a ‘taxi service’, that gives fuel to extreme groups such as this,” the official said.
Greece Clears Camp in Disused Athens Airport
Greek police cleared a makeshift refugee camp in a disused airport and Olympic facility in Athens and sent its approximately 400 inhabitants to refugee centers around the country.
Greece initially relocated asylum seekers to the abandoned terminals and stadiums of Hellenikon in November 2015 after the Greek-Macedonian border closed.
At its height last summer, around 3,000 people were living there in cramped conditions, with little access to food and hot water. A group of residents went on hunger strike in February to protest conditions there.
Some people living in Hellenikon were afraid to leave the Athens area, fearing it would make it more difficult to continue on to northern Europe.
The Greek government has agreed to lease the site to private investors for a 7 billion euro ($7.9 billion) redevelopment project that includes hotels, parks and shopping malls.
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