Attachments
Context Overview
The situation in the NWSW continues to be highly volatile, with a persistent insecurity risk. The population in the North-West and South-West regions (NWSW) continues to suffer the consequences of violent incidents, whether by being directly targeted, caught in the crossfire, or impacted by NSAGs or military raids. Incidents of kidnapping for ransom, arbitrary arrests, and destruction of property are still observed. Civilians and humanitarians also suffer from the multiplicity of illegal checkpoints and the demands for illegal payments at roadblocks. During this quarter, the NSAGs announced a lockdown from the 6th to the 13th of January to frustrate the Youth Day celebration process in this part of the country. Multiple threats followed this.
It is worth noting that this lockdown hampered humanitarian interventions in the NWSW regions. Also, reports from several media houses brought to light the incident of an IED explosion on the 11th of February 2024 in Nkambe town the divisional headquarters of the Donga Mantung Division which led to the death of 1 person and injury of some others. According to OCHA January 2024 Sitrep, multiple incidents led to the displacement of an estimated 300 persons in Muyuka subdivision.
DRC has been present in the South-west region since November 2018 conducting Protection, Shelter/NFI, and Economic Recovery (ECREC) projects for the crisis-affected populations. Within the protection sector, DRC has been operating under 4 main components: child protection, community-based protection, Protection Information Management (PIM), Prevention of and response to GBV and psychosocial support. Protection monitoring which is part of protection information management, is the systematic and regular collection, verification, and analysis of information over an extended period (every month) to identify violations of rights and/or protection risks, priorities and needs of populations of concern to implement effective reactive measures. This report presents the key findings of DRC’s protection monitoring activities carried out during January, February, and March 2024.
The document gives an overview of the protection situation and the impact of the ongoing crisis in the SW on the local population. It was developed based on findings from 8 communities in the Fako, Kupe Muanenguba, and Meme divisions in Southwest Cameroon, using the P21 tool and DRC’s daily protection incident tracker. DRC’s protection monitoring activities also support evidence-based protection and Economic Recovery responses aiming at mitigating and responding to protection concerns related to human rights violations and displacement.