Humanitarian partners continue Covid-19 response in Cameroon ⁰

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said its partners have provided health, water and sanitation, and hygiene support, including mobile clinics, disease screening and Covid-19 sensitisation, to more than 450,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the north-west and south-west regions of Cameroon.

The agency said government and humanitarian partners were also providing distance learning to more than half of the children affected by school closures in both regions through radio, TV and printed material.

More than 6,370 schools and 4,200 community learning centres in the regions have been closed since March to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Authorities have announced the potential reopening of schools in June.

Food distribution to displaced people was also expected to increase following the development of revised guidelines and risk mitigation measures by the food security cluster and supporting partners. In April, Covid-19-related restrictions meant that food assistance reached only 10% of beneficiaries, leaving more than 150,000 people without support, OCHA said.

“More than 1.4 million people in the north-west and south-west regions are food insecure, with numbers gradually increasing every month,” the statement read.

The humanitarian co-ordinator in Cameroon has also met the secretary-general of the south-west region governor’s office, to improve collaboration and co-ordination with the government’s humanitarian co-ordination centres.

The agency said this is also aimed at strengthening transparency among humanitarian partners, including support for the Covid-19 response.

Besides the IDPs in the north-west and the south-west, Cameroon also has 200,000 IDPs in other parts of the country. Some 58,000 Cameroonians are refugees in Nigeria.

So far, Cameroon has recorded 3,529 Covid-19 cases and 140 deaths.

Source: African News Agency