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Cameroon tops ranking of world’s most neglected displacement crises

anglophone crisis

Security guards check a vehicle arriving in Nigeria at a checkpoint border between Cameroon and Nigeria, in Mfum, in Cross Rivers State, southeast Nigeria, on February 1, 2018. - The UN refugee agency on February 1, 2018 criticised Nigeria for breaching international agreements after the leader of a Cameroonian anglophone separatist movement and his supporters were extradited at Yaounde's request. Cameroon's government is fighting an insurgency by a group demanding a separate state for two regions that are home to most of the country's anglophones, who account for about a fifth of the population. Thousands of Cameroonians fled to the remote border region with Nigeria to escape from the violences in English-speaking southwest Cameroon. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP)

A conflict that has forced half a million people from their homes in Cameroon was on Wednesday named the world’s most neglected displacement crisis by aid workers who said the country was edging towards full-blown war.

Hundreds of villages have been burned, hospitals have been attacked and nearly 800,000 children have seen their schools close, said the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which compiles the annual ranking.

“This culture of paralysis by the international community has to end,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the NRC, who recently visited the central African country.  

“Every day the conflict is allowed to continue, bitterness is building and the region edges closer towards full-blown war.”

Cameroonian refugees stand in front of home in Bashu, Boki district of Cross Rivers State, southeast Nigeria, on January 31, 2018. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP)

The NRC analysed 36 crises in 2018 to produce its annual list, based on lack of funding, lack of media attention and political neglect. Most of the 10 most neglected were in Africa.

“Humanitarian assistance should be given based on needs, and needs alone,” said Egeland in a statement.

“However, every day millions of displaced people are neglected because they have been struck by the wrong crisis and the dollars have dried up.”

A record 68.5 million people had been forced to flee their homes by the end of 2017, said the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in its latest global trends report.

Cameroon, where a conflict between armed groups and security forces in the South-West and North-West has left 1.3 million people in need of aid, scored highly on all three areas measured by the index.

Supporters of the ruling CPDM party, Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement of incumbent Cameroonian President Paul Biya, gather as a patrol of the Cameroonian Gendarmerie deploys in the Omar Bongo Square of the majority anglophone South West region capital Buea, on October 3, 2018 on the sidelines of a political rally. (Photo by MARCO LONGARI / AFP)

It was followed by Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Burundi, all of which have been affected by conflict.

Ukraine, at number five, was the only European country in this list, while Venezuela climbed to sixth place.

The final four countries in the top 10 were Mali, Libya, Ethiopia and Palestine.

Aid agencies are struggling to meet increasing needs worldwide while relying on limited funding, said Helen Thompson for humanitarian organisation CARE International UK.

“Ultimately, humanitarian action alone cannot end humanitarian need,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“These crises require political solutions to put an end to conflict, allowing people to recover, rebuild their lives, and live in peace.”

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