Fleeing Boko Haram: Nigerian refugees find a safe haven in Cameroon
The havoc caused by Boko Haram has spilled over into three countries bordering northern Nigeria, and Cameroon is among the most affected.
Over 90 000 Nigerian refugees crossed the border seeking protection in the Far North of Cameroon, a region which was already struggling with poverty and chronic vulnerability. The European Commission provides funding to a range of humanitarian organisations working in Minawao camp, all striving to meet the basic needs of refugees.
Two hours by road from Maroua, the capital of the remote Far North region of Cameroon, Minawao refugee camp’s spread of tents form a white line that can be seen from a distance. The refugee population living here has grown exponentially, from 3 000 in 2013 to the current number of 64 000.
Jumai Thimothy is 8 months pregnant, awaiting what will be her fourth child. She is from Djibrili, in Nigeria’s Borno state, the one most affected by the humanitarian crisis resulting from Boko Haram’s insurgency.
“My house was burned, everything was destroyed. A group of villagers were sitting under a tree and they were all massacred,” she recalls. “I was working the field when I heard shots and the crackling of the trees as they burned. I knew we had to run.”
In the camp, she feels safe, and although she would like to eventually go back home, she would only do so if the security situation improves.
“We receive aid here. We depend completely on aid.”
Refugees are confined to the camp and rely entirely on humanitarian aid to survive. Food is among one of their basic needs. General food distributions happen once a month at Minawao camp. Around 16 500 households — 97% of those registered- receive food rations. There are so many that the distributions take three days to complete.
To receive their food ration for a month, refugees must show their ID card, where the size of the family is clearly marked. This will determine the size of the ration they get.
“Once the identity is verified, the refugee gets different vouchers which can be exchanged for different food items,” explains the WFP’s officer in charge in Maroua, Apolinaire Adamu.
Beneficiaries get cereal, pulses, enriched vegetable oil, enriched flour and salt, in quantities calculated to last a month. However, lack of funding for the Lake Chad crisis in Cameroon has forced WFP to cut rations by 25% since January 2017.
38-year-old Mariamu Jakobou has just picked up the monthly food rations for her nine children. On her back, she carries her four-month-old baby.
“I come from Gwoza [a village in Nigeria]. I fled when Boko Haram came and burned the houses. They massacred my uncles,” she says. “We left with nothing and it took us five days to get here.”
European humanitarian experts personally visit and monitor aid projects funded by the EU, to ensure aid goes to those who need it. EU field expert in Cameroon Rose Etame (in the above image — left) takes notes while discussing with UN Refugee Agency’s expert in water and sanitation Kadesou Djarmatna (above image — right).
Water is essential for survival. The biggest challenge for humanitarian organisations was ensuring the availability of clean, potable water when building a refugee camp from scratch in an inhabited area.
“We are in an area with little underground water so you can imagine the challenge of providing water to 64 000 people,” says Kadesou.
“There are now 33 wells but we had to build a pipeline to bring additional water from nearby villages,” he adds. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is one of the organisations which have received funding from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department.
“The aid provided by the EU’s humanitarian department in the Far North of Cameroon is essential. For now we have managed to bring down the acute malnutrition rate in some areas of the Far North region which in 2016 had a rate exceeding the emergency threshold of 2%.” says EU humanitarian expert Rose Etame.
“Our main focus in 2017 are the areas where the situation remains in dire straits and the malnutrition rate of children under 5 year is still at the emergency threshold. These areas host a large number of displaced people with limited access to livelihoods. This is why it is critical that assistance is maintained, so we do no find ourselves with a situation deteriorating to a point similar to where Nigeria is.”
Nigeria is one of the four countries in the world, along with South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, where there is a very high risk of famine or famine has already been declared in some areas.
The European Commission substantially increased its humanitarian support to Cameroon. In 2015 and 2016, over €50 million were allocated to respond to the growing needs in the country, which also hosts refugees from Central African Republic and has 223 000 of its own citizens displaced in the Far North by Boko Haram violence.
With this funding emergency assistance provided to internally displaced, refugees and the host populations; the funding provides shelter, food, safe drinking water and sanitation, primary healthcare, support to livelihoods and protection. In addition, this humanitarian funding addresses the acute food and nutrition insecurity of a vulnerable population living in limbo.
By Isabel Coello, Regional Information Officer for North, West and Central Africa, EU Humanitarian Aid.
Learn more about EU Humanitarian Aid.
