436,000 Ambazonians internally displaced, Humanitarian response plan underfunded ⁰

With at least 436,000 people currently internally displaced in Cameroon’s South-West and North-West – and in neighbouring departments – due to hostilities between armed groups and security forces, the country remains of urgent humanitarian concern.

Humanitarian presence and response are slowly increasing in the affected areas, with priority given to the South-West region which is the epicentre of the displacement crisis with 246,000 IDPs. OCHA has strengthened its capacity including on access and civil-military coordination, and other UN humanitarian agencies are establishing a presence in the two regions and are responding primarily through NGOs in the affected areas.

However, limited access due to insecurity and lack of funding remain impediments to the scale-up of humanitarian programming.

A special three-months response plan launched at the end of May to address the urgent needs of 160,000 vulnerable people in the South-West and North-West requested US$15 million in funding. But only a $5 million rapid response grant from the Central Emergency Response Fund has been received.

The overall 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan for Cameroon requesting $320 million is also underfunded at less than 37 per cent.

Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).