Editorial: Yaounde should have compassion for Cameroonian refugees too!.

According to organisers, the aim of the advocacy concert was to raise awareness about the current challenges of refugees.

In his welcome address, the Deputy Representative of the UNHCR, Cesar Mbav Tshilombo, stressed that: “As you know a refugee is somebody who has left his country because of the threat of persecution and fears to be killed or the threat for dead that is why they ran away from his or her country. And then to take this decision to leave your country and go to another location is not easy. So, that is why we are celebrating with music”.

He pointed out that: “They still believe that although they have lost everything, they did not lose their humanity because they are still humans. And music is the way to celebrate this humanity”. 

That was soothing to the refugees in Cameroon, but can the CPDM government conscientiously say it has provided any succour to its numerous compatriots languishing in Nigeria?

Latest humanitarian reports from Nigeria indicate that as at late last year, "the comprehensive verification exercise of Cameroonian refugees was completed by UNHCR in collaboration with the Nigerian government and other partners”. 

“The exercise successfully reached 71% of the targeted 81,511 refugees. In addition, more than 15,000 new-born and refugees were registered during the exercise. To further refine the assistance provided, UNHCR integrated a socio-economic survey into the verification exercise and continuous registration activities, ensuring more targeted and effective support," the report added. 

The Cameroonian refugee men, women, and children are registered in Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Benue, Cross River, Enugu, and Taraba States in Nigeria, according to the report.

If those in Lagos, Abuja and other neighbouring towns are included, the number would be astronomical. They live in dire situations despite the assistance provided by the Nigerian state governments, local people and other international donors.

When the then Bishop of Mamfe, Andrew Nkea, who is today Archbishop of Bamenda, once visited the refugees, he returned to write that: "Some of their stories are pathetic and the conditions under which they live is appalling. They are scattered all over the place and sleeping on verandas and open space like people without a Homeland...Our visit almost moved us to tears".

The leader of Cameroon Renaissance Movement, MRC, Prof. Maurice Kamto, quoting UN Refugees sources in one of his critiques of the government, wrote that "...women and children constitute 80% of this population, exposed to begging for some, to sexual and gender-based violence and to prostitution for others".

That suffering, which continues till today, has not gnawed on the conscience of the ruling political class, even as mankind celebrated the World Refugee Day last week to draw attention to the plight. 

To his credit, President Paul Biya, in 2020, launched a reconstruction and development plan for the North West and South West Regions, which envisaged the construction of 12,000 private homes, schools, hospitals, bridges, and markets destroyed or damaged in the fighting.

Two years later, only 40 schools and 20 hospitals had been rebuilt as foreign funding was not coming as expected while more destruction was being done by the vandals in hiding.

In April last year, the Voice of America quoted the deputy coordinator of the reconstruction plan, Njong Donatus, saying so far, they’ve re-built less than one hundred.

He blamed ongoing slow pace on separatist fighters who regularly seize and destroy construction materials and abduct workers for ransom.

"We are at the recovery phase of the plan to bring back the two regions to where they were before the crisis, and I think that it is to the interest of every son and daughter of our regions to come on board so that we get this done. I will equally call on children who are in the bush that it is time for them to come out so that our people benefit from this. Some of the areas are still hostile and we have difficulties penetrating those areas," he said.

The government said it will provide 70% of the funds while the rest will be covered by international donors, including the U.N., France, and Japan, and private companies - both local and foreign.

But the cost of the reconstruction plan initially estimated at 89 billion FCFA, which would have ended in 2022, is still limping in 2024. Critics had said at its 2020 launch that it would not succeed because conventionally identical plans are put in place only at the end of conflict.

But insecurity continues to spike in the two regions. For instance, in April 2024 alone, according to a report by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operation "616 security incidents took place in the North West and South West regions and the Far North, the highest level of insecurity observed in the past 12 months”.

The organisation noted that "violence and insecurity have uprooted people: Close to 2.2 million people are now internally displaced, returnees or refugees".

It is an alarming situation that the Cameroon government would have used the opportunity of the World Refugee Day to facilitate the return of compatriots in Nigeria and resettle them. Perhaps that has not happened because the reconstruction plan is not succeeding as insecurity and more Cameroonians fleeing for safety.

For The Guardian Post, World Refugee Day should not just end at musical concerts to show compassion for those in Cameroon, but as a reminder to the powers that be in Yaounde that thousands of compatriots and languishing in foreign land and facilitate their return home even if they settle like internally displaced persons, which is better than being a refugee. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3148 of Monday June 24, 2024