An estimated 12,000 people have fled from Nigeria to seek refuge in neighboring Chad since the Baga massacre early January perpetrated by Boko Haram militants, said the UN refugee agency.
Boko Haram militants staged a deadly attack on Jan. 3 on a military base in the northeastern Nigerian town of Baga, which reportedly killed around 2,000 people.
"60 percent of about 12,000 Nigerian refugees in Chad are women", UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman William Spindler told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.
"There are also 84 non-accompanied children," he added.
He also said that around 2,000 people were stranded on Kangala island on Lake Chad, waiting to be transported to the mainland.
The number of the internally displaced people in Nigeria since Jan. 3 is 150,000, according to the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, but the figure has yet to be confirmed by the UN.
Tens of thousands of Nigerians have been killed since Boko Haram launched its violent campaign in 2009 following the extrajudicial murder of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, while in police custody.
The group has also been blamed for the destruction of public infrastructure, private businesses and the displacement of at least 6 million Nigerians.
