Cameroon Humanitarian Bulletin Issue N°25 | October 2021

HIGHLIGHTS

• Lake Chad basin: 10.6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. 2.8 million people internally displaced and 231,000 refugees in the region as of October 2021.

• Displacement in Far North region: The internally displaced people’s site of Zamai in the Far North region hosts over 4,000 IDPs.
More than 21,000 people fled in Logone Birni district because of inter-community clashes.

• Cholera outbreak: On 29 October 2021, the regional delegation of public health for the South-West reported four cases of cholera in Bamusso and Ekondo Titi localities.

CAMEROON HOSTED THE THIRD MEETING OF THE LAKE CHAD BASIN GOVERNOR’S FORUM

On 4 and 5 October 2021, Cameroon hosted the third Lake Chad basin Governors’ Forum in Yaoundé.

Eight governors from crisis-affected areas in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon attended the Forum. Other participants included high-level officials from the African Union, the United Nations agencies headquarter in New York and regional offices in Dakar, ambassadors, and representatives of national and international organizations.

The forum was an opportunity to assess and analyze the political, civil, security, and humanitarian situation in the Lake Chad basin (LCB), provide an opportunity to build on the achievements made since the 2019 forum, and strengthen regional and cross-border cooperation in the fight against insurgency and violence in the region. It was also an occasion to review the state of civilmilitary and humanitarian cooperation, analyze the opportunities and stakes of cross-border cooperation, and examine the various options and solutions for rehabilitating and reintegrating people formerly associated with non-State armed groups (NSAG).

Mahamat Annadif, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel, reiterated the full support of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) for a stable and prosperous Lake Chad basin. “Stressing the importance of developing and coordinating responses to face the challenges that threaten the different sub-regions, it is imperative to identify the links between the situations in the Lake Chad basin and the Sahel and explore appropriate programmatic responses to address trans-regional threats,” he added.

In the final communiqué, participants acknowledged that the humanitarian situation in the region is compounded by development needs, including significant literacy deficits, economic crises, youth unemployment, increasingly frequent and severe weather events, and natural disasters. The communiqué also expressed concern that the situation has deteriorated as a result of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, participants urged for collective efforts in the effective response to, and recovery from, the pandemic, as part of addressing the multidimensional crises in the region.

Since the breakout of NSAGs insurgency in 2009, the region has struggled to curtail the impact of the massive internal and cross-border displacement, the destruction of social fabric and property, human rights abuses, disrupted public services, and limited capacities of government institutions. The number of violent attacks tripled in the LCB from 2015 to 2020 and more than 3 million people are uprooted. This represents the highest number since 2019. “Guaranteeing increased access for humanitarian assistance to all populations in need, wherever they may find themselves, and protecting the humanitarian space must remain a priority in the regional agenda,” stated Matthias Naab, the Humanitarian Coordinator and UN Resident Coordinator in Cameroon.