An overview of Internally and Externally Displaced people in the NW and SW Regions of Cameroon

According to the office of the coordination of human affairs of the UN, the crisis in the South-West and North-West Regions of Cameroon has compounded pre-existing vulnerabilities. Since 2016, political and social instability, exacerbated by sporadic violence, has had a negative impact on the civilian population of Cameroon’s South-West and North-West Regions, hosting four million inhabitants (16% of the total population). In November 2017, the sociopolitical crisis progressively translated into insecurity and armed violence. Since then, the escalation of tension and upsurge in hostilities between non-state armed groups and defense and security forces have triggered humanitarian needs across the two regions, linked to significant internal displacement.

In recent months, the epicenter of the crisis has moved from Bamenda in the North-West Region to Mamfe and Kumba in the South-West Region. All divisions in the South-West region, which host more than 1.4 million inhabitants, have been seriously affected by the crisis.

The number of households forced to flee their villages - or the country - in search of safer areas has rapidly and steadily increased since November 2017. Recent needs assessments report that at least 160,000 people have been internally displaced in the two affected regions and would need humanitarian and protection assistance over the next months. In addition, more than 21,000 Cameroonians have been registered as refugees in Cross River, Benue and Akwa Ibom States in Nigeria.1 This crisis is taking place against a backdrop of several other humanitarian emergencies affecting 3.3 million people across Cameroon.

The South-West Region has become the hub of the crisis as it is home to more than 90% of the 160,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in need of humanitarian assistance; 135,000 are located in Meme Division and 15,000 in Manyu Division. The remaining 10,000 are displaced in the North-West Region.

Simultaneously, dozens of villages in Mbongue and Konye Subdivision (Meme Division) have been emptied of their populations. The situation is similar in the NorthWest, especially in Boyo Division.

Many villages have suffered significant material damage in Mbongue and Konye Subdivision (Meme Division), and in Eyumodjok and Akwaya Subdivision (Manyu Division).

Clashes between non-state armed groups and defense and security forces have displaced the civilian population into the surrounding forests and villages – 80% of the displaced populations have found refuge in the forest.

People from the two regions have been affected in different ways. Primarily, it has affected school-age children, women and the elderly - and a collapse of livelihoods as well as heightened abuses.
The crisis and subsequent displacement have prevented people from accessing their fields and markets. For most of the affected population who relied upon agriculture or livestock as their main sources of livelihoods before the crisis, dependency on external assistance is inevitable in the short-term.

Another class of people affected by the situation includes those who are simply escaping from the fear of being nabbed by virtue of circumstances surrounding their lives. Some of these circumstances include escaping from possible arrest due to what you may be in terms of profession and general political orientation. The best way to see this upfront is to go through encounters with some who were directly affected by the skirmishes and arrests.

According to UNICEF Cameroon Humanitarian Situation Report of April 2018, in the worst-hit areas of Mamfe and Kumba in the southwest, some 40,000 people are estimated to have fled their homes. One of such cases that we caught up with is Mezatio Tsakem Broline from Kumba in the South West region of Cameroon, one of the worse hit areas. 

Mezatio Tsakem Broline

Like any refugee or escapee from home, there is always a long and touching story to tell. In a bid to get his son out of the country for studies, Mezatio Tsakem Broline’s father got admission for his son at Langston University in the United States of America to study Biology. He said when his father saw his frustration emanating from the Anglophone minority marginalization in terms of  language, culture, employment and others things, he facilitated his admission in order for him to travel abroad and continue his education.

His dramatic departure from the country in January 2017 was however not hitch free since according to his beleaguered parents he left with a warrant hanging over his head certainly due to his tendency to express the way he felt openly. His parents said they had been poorly treated for failure to provide their son.

The victim in an earlier chat put it himself in the following manner; “Many innocent Anglophones around my quarter in Kumba have been arrested and taken away to Yaoundé. This young Cameroonian graduate in Biochemistry can certainly not return home but at least his ambitions to pursue his studies will be satisfied.

He explained that he started experiencing fear sometime in 2016 when shortly after the Anglophone Common law Lawyers took to the streets in the both Anglophone Regions of Cameroon and were battered and their wigs and legal robes seized by the brutal forces. Later on, he took part in the all Anglophone teachers meeting considering that he was a Mathematics teacher at the Our Lady of Grace College in Muyuka. Like many other young Cameroonians in the same circumstances like this young man, returning home is out of question.

In refugee camps in Nigeria similar stories abound.   "The situation is very difficult for us," said Peter Kechi, the village chief of Bashu, which is some five kilometres (three miles) from the border and whose population has ballooned from 1,500 to 4,000 in a few months."We are taking refugees into our homes and our bedrooms, with sometimes 20 people sleeping in the same room," Kechi said.

Locals say the refugees cross the border on foot through heavily forested mountainous areas, making it difficult to record their arrival. Separatists have been blamed for the torching of schools in the areas, while aid groups and residents also regularly accuse the army of carrying out abuses against civilians. Early this month a human rights activist charged that soldiers killed several civilians by setting fire to their homes. Ben Ojometa, a 75 year old Cameroonian refugee recounts his ordeal after fleeing from the military in precarious conditions across the forest to get to Agborkim town, Etung District of Cross Rivers State, South East Nigeria, on February 2, 2018.

 

 © Pius Utomi Ekpei, AFP | Cameroonian refugee Ben Ojometa, 75, sits to recuperate from injuries sustained fleeing Cameroon’s military.

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