Yaoundé – Cameroon’s overlapping conflicts have pushed almost one million people from their homes. A new report says the crisis is both under-funded and under-reported. RFI spoke to some of those forced to flee, now struggling to survive far from home.
Constance Banda sits on a wooden stool, her hands moving steadily as she washes her children’s clothes – three of the six look on, as at the end of the hall her four-year-old daughter cradles her tiny, two-week-old sister.
“I gave birth to her here,” Banda tells RFI, a brief smile emerging. “She offers me solace."
The bungalow where Banda and her family now live was once part of a government poultry farm in Mvogbessi, in Cameroon's capital Yaoundé. The farm was abandoned after bird flu struck Cameroon in 2016, killing more than 15,000 birds.
Today, this building is home not just for Banda and her children, but for dozens of other internally displaced people from Cameroon's war-torn North West and South West regions.
“It’s very hard for us here. My children sometimes go for days without food. My husband is a bricklayer, but he works for people and they hardly pay him," says Banda.
Her neighbour, Ruth Che Ndukong from Akum village, has a similar story of loss and migration. Seven years ago, she was mourning the death of her mother when gunmen attacked.
“I came here seven years ago. It was just at the beginning of the crisis. We were burying our mother when gunfire stormed the burial grounds. It was terrifying. So we decided to flee.”
Ndukong said life hasn’t been easy since she arrived in Yaoundé, as she worked flour into dough. “I survive by making and selling doughnuts,” she explained. “It’s the only thing you can make with limited capital."
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Multiple crises in the country
The experiences of these two women highlight the hardships endured by almost 1 million internally displaced people across Cameroon.
“Many of them are barely surviving. Many are exploited, because they are vulnerable," said Willibroad Dze-Ngwa, a lecturer of history and political science at the University of Yaoundé 2.
Cameroon is grappling with multiple crises leading to this mass displacement, including a Boko Haram insurgency in the north, a refugee influx from the Central African Republic, and the protracted Anglophone crisis that has afflicted the country for more than eight years.
Banda and Ndukong are victims of the latter – which initially manifested as peaceful protests by teachers and lawyers in these regions who were challenging the imposition of French within Anglophone educational and judicial institutions.
The situation escalated into violence following the government's hardline response. Subsequently a separatist movement developed, which resorted to armed conflict against the state, demanding the secession of the Anglophone regions to form a new nation, Ambazonia.
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The roots of the conflict lie in Cameroon's colonial past. The country had been colonised by Germany, but after the First World War it was split between France and the United Kingdom. The UK took control of the areas now known as the North West and South West regions, while France ruled the rest.
When independence came in 1960, the British and French-ruled parts of Cameroon decided to join together in a federation. But this came to an end following a controversial referendum in 1972, which saw the country abandon the federal system to become a unitary state.
Anglophone Cameroonians – who make up around 20 percent of the country's 28 million people – view this change as the majority Francophone population trying to absorb them, and anger over this exploded into conflict in 2016.
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Aid cuts and lack of coverage
As the people of Cameroon suffer through these crises, the latest report from the Norwegian Refugee Council has put the country at the top of the list of most neglected displacement crises.
As well as noting the lack of funding to deal with the situation, in the wake of recent overseas aid cuts by several Western countries, the report highlights the relative lack of media coverage.
It reports that the displacement crisis in Cameroon was mentioned in 28,800 articles in English, Spanish, French and Arabic in 2024 – 15 times fewer mentions than the war in Ukraine, which was mentioned in 451,000 articles.
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Theodore Lontum Wankuy, of the Big Steps Outreach Network NGO, told RFI that many of his organisation's programmes have been derailed by aid cuts.
“We used to receive aid from Canada and the UN, but that UN assistance is no longer available after the Trump administration cut funding to UN agencies. The US previously supplied about 80 percent of UNDP funding. That support has been cut, meaning that door has been slammed shut for us. Consequently, many of our projects have been put on hold,” he said.
Both Banda and Ndukong said that since they arrived in Yaoundé, they haven’t received any assistance from the government or from NGOs.
“We basically live from day to day. You aren’t always sure where your next meal will come from,” Ndukong told RFI.
Banda added: “All I pray for is for the fighting to end so that we can return a rebuild our lives."
