YAOUNDE, June 21 (Xinhua) -- The government of Cameroon has demonstrated an exceptional amount of generosity and understanding by agreeing to play host to hordes of refugees from strife-torn neighboring states, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Friday.

    The opening of doors to Chadian refugees fleeing fighting between rebels and government forces in February 2008 and the continued reception of refugees, who are fleeing abuses by armed bandits in the Central African Republic, "is evidence of this generosity," UNHCR country representative for Cameroon Jacques Franquin said Friday.

    Presently, some 60,000 Central African refugees are present in eastern Cameroon, while a further 5,000 Chadians have found refuge at Langui in the north, said the UN diplomat, who was speaking on the sidelines of celebrations to mark the eighth edition of the World Refugee Day.

    In addition, there are more than 15,000 urban refugees from the greater Central Africa region, which includes Chad, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, who are spread in the country's two major cities of Douala and Yaounde, according to UNHCR figures.

    "Despite the efforts of the authorities to integrate these refugees within the mainstream of the Cameroonian society, there is always some concern if nothing is done to help these men and women," said Franklin.

    "Hosting some 80,000 refugees compared to the population of Cameroon is not much. But today, the figure of 80,000 is a cause for some concern," said the UN official, adding that the presence of the refugees had strained resources.

    "There is already an enormous amount of work that we are doing and I do not pledge to do more than this. We are working with the populations in the east in a very close manner. We are providing them with food and also helping them to send their children to school," he said.

    "We are assisting the refugees in Langui in northern Cameroon just as we are indeed doing for all the refugees. We are helping them so that they can find an environment that conducive for them to fit more easily into the Cameroonian society," said Franquin.

    "Cameroon is a welcoming and hospitable country. We are committed to adhering to the requirements of the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees," Cameroonian Social Affairs Minister Catherine Bakang Mbog said.

    "We make every effort to ensure that persons, who find themselves in Cameroon under circumstances that we are well aware of, feel at home," said the minister, who represented the foreign minister during the celebrations.

    This position was shared by Samuel Madjamra, chairman of the Association of Urban Refugees in Cameroon, who, on behalf of all the refugees, wished to thank the Cameroonian authorities and UNHCR for their endeavors.