The Cameroon Government and UNDP are partnering to remove abandoned kids from the streets.
Cameroon’s major cities experienced a skyrocketing increase in the number of street children. The figures increased from just 1,000 in 2010 to approximately 27,000 in 2022.
The government has said economic hardship, armed conflict, and family conflicts have contributed to the spike.
Cameroon Government, UNDP partner to seek solutions
The Cameroon government recently partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to remove some of these children from the streets of three major cities: Douala, Yaounde, and Ngoundere.
Part of this project includes numbering street children living in these cities. The ongoing census has already identified about 1,822 street children living in these cities.
During a recent interview with CRTV, Henri Dikosso Nyambi, the Technical Adviser 1 at the Ministry of Social Affairs, stated that we will reunite rescued children with their families or place them in specialised institutions for training.
“So we have about 1,822 street children that we identified during a census last month in a project that we are carrying out with the UN Development Program, UNDP. We are carrying out that project in Yaounde, Douala, and Ngoundere,” said Henri Dikosso.
Anglophone Crisis, Boko Haram
In 2020, over 10,000 street children were present in Cameroon’s two largest cities, Douala and Yaounde. This was a sharp increase from just 1,000 that were counted in 2010.
The soaring cases were attributed to armed conflict in the English-speaking Regions and the Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North. Humanitarian organisations report that both conflicts have internally displaced hundreds of thousands, with over 50 percent being children.
“It is a common problem for urban areas due to the fact that many families, while facing economic difficulties, generally abandon their responsibilities, and children find themselves in the street,” Dikosso said.
He also explained that competition and peer pressure have pushed some children to the streets—amid a growing quest to make quick money and become famous. Meanwhile, parents and children engage in family conflict, compelling some children to leave their homes and never return.
He said, “The government is preoccupied with removing these children from the streets.”
