Cameroon on global top 10 humanitarian crises watch list

The humanitarian crisis in Cameroon has been listed among the top ten worldwide by The New Humanitarian, TNH.

In its ten humanitarian crisis and trends to watch in 2020, TNH placed Cameroon, Burundi and the Central African Republic on a similar level, citing neglect.
“Violence, displacement, and hunger stalk all three central African countries, yet they get far less media attention – and humanitarian funds – than many other emergencies,” TNH stated.

“In Cameroon, the three-year conflict between rebels in the two English-speaking regions demanding independence from the majority francophone country has displaced 1.9 million people and closed more than 80 percent of schools in the affected zones,” it adds.

Despite giving the Anglophone regions greater autonomy and releasing some political prisoners, the fighting seems to be no where close to ending. These measures regions, have “been dismissed by the separatists as too little too late,” states TNH.

In the Far North Region, TNH also revealed that “Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram still kills and abducts civilians”. With more incursions recently in neighboring nations to, many fear the group is regaining its strength.

Territorial Administration Minister Atanga Nji Paul has since downplayed the effects of the crisis in the North West and South West regions, claiming that aid groups on the ground are falsifying figures.

The Central African Republic’s six-year conflict TNH notes “has left a quarter of the population displaced, either internally or into neighbouring countries, and roughly 2.6 million of the country’s 4.6 million inhabitants are in urgent need of humanitarian support, which is hard to deliver because of the violence – despite the controversial presence of UN peacekeepers”.

“Over in Burundi, although not in open war, state-led torture and disappearances against the opponents of President Pierre Nkurunziza remain a terrifying reality,” it adds.

Mimi Mefo Info