Once Again, Cameroon is among the World’s Most Neglected Crises

As the world’s attention ebbs and flows around new crises and conflicts, an unsettling trend is emerging. Neglect of protracted displacement crises is becoming the new normal

By Boris Esono Nwenfor

BUEA, PAV – Cameroon has been placed second on the Norwegian Refugee Council’s annual list of the world’s most neglected displacement crises, consistently being ranked in the top three.  In 2018, Cameroon topped the Norwegian Refugee Council’s annual list of the world’s most neglected displacement crises.

Burkina Faso has topped the list for the second year in a row, followed by Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mali, Niger, Honduras, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Chad and Sudan.

Escalating violence forced many Cameroonians to flee their homes, resulting in 1.1 million people displaced within the country by the year’s end, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. The arrival of refugees from the neighbouring Central African Republic put a further strain on resources, with almost half a million refugees now residing in Cameroon. Access to services remains a challenge in the East region, where most refugees have settled, with occasional conflicts flaring up over resources.  

The Norwegian Refugee Council notes that a total of 4.7 million people required aid in 2023, while funds remained limited. Only 32 per cent of the humanitarian response plan was covered by international donors, the lowest rate since 2016. This left hundreds of thousands of people without lifesaving support and protection services, including basic services such as health and education, and legal aid to help them secure essential documents and land and property rights.  

Each year, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) publishes a report on the ten most neglected displacement crises in the world. The purpose is to focus on the plight of people whose suffering rarely makes international headlines, who receive little or no assistance, and who never become the centre of attention for international diplomacy efforts.

The annual list of neglected displacement crises is based on three criteria: lack of funding, lack of media attention and political neglect. Cameroon scored high on all three, followed closely by DR Congo and Central African Republic, two other crises where a lack of public attention has contributed to a lack of funding for humanitarian relief.

“The utter neglect of displaced people has become the new normal,” said Jan Egeland, secretary-general of NRC, in a statement on the report. “The local political and military elites disregard the suffering they cause, and the world is neither shocked nor compelled to act by stories of desperation and record-breaking statistics.”

The crisis in the country's North West and South West regions has continued as the crisis is in its seventh year. In parallel, the security situation in Cameroon’s Far North Region became increasingly volatile, with civilians frequently being targeted by non-state armed groups as fighting surged in the Lake Chad Basin area.

People in the Far North region and the Anglophone regions of North West and South West struggled to find safety amid human rights violations including killings and abductions. Meanwhile, access to food, water and basic healthcare was limited across Cameroon. The protracted crisis is increasingly taking on a socioeconomic dimension, with every sector of the economy affected and rising food prices exacerbating rampant food insecurity. At least 2.5 million people are dangerously short of food. 

The crisis erupted in 2016 when the government suppressed protests in the English-speaking North West and South West. More than 6,000 people have been killed in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions since.

Hundreds of villages have been set ablaze. Hospitals have been attacked. Health workers fear being abducted or killed. Over 780,000 children have seen their schools close and thousands of people, currently hiding in the bushes, have received no humanitarian relief.

The three crises engulfing Cameroon remain off the map and the situation threatens to stagnate. Rising levels of unaddressed needs coupled with a lethargic response from the international community mean that another challenging year awaits Cameroon in 2024.