Appeal History
- This Emergency Appeal was launched on 9 February, 2015 for CHF 1,671,593 for 5 months to support Cameroon Red Cross provide assistance to some 25,000 persons in emergency health, water, sanitation and hygiene promotion, emergency shelter, food security, nutrition and livelihoods, National Society capacity building and disaster risk reduction.
- Operations update n°1 was issued on 5 March 2015 to an update on the operation since its launch.
- Operations update n°2 was issued on 14 April 2015 highlighting an additional request allocation of CHF 20,754, to help set up a computer room at the Cameroon Red Cross headquarters, train NS staff in the use of radio frequency and radio equipment and in security and E-learning.
- A Revised Emergency Appeal was issued on 3 July 2015 for CHF 958,660 to assist 12,500 most vulnerable people (2500 families), and extended the implementation timeframe to 31 January 2016.
- A Six-month Summary Update report was issued in on 30 September 2015, to report on progress and achievements during the first six months of the operation.
- In January 2016, an operations update was issued, requesting for a timeframe extension, until 28 February 2016, to enable completion of monitoring activities/closure of the operation.
- A 12-month operations update was published on 4 April 2016, reporting on activities carried out and achievements during the last 12 months of the operation.
Description of the Disaster
Since July 2014, a large number of Nigerian refugees have been registered by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Cameroon, specifically in the Mayo Tsanaga Division of the Far North Region, where the Minawao camp is located. By July 2015, UNHCR reported about 57,376 refugees in the region: Some 44,889 are hosted in the Minawao camp, while the remaining 12,487 are within the host communities.
This population movement of Nigerians is a result of armed insurgency in the north-east of Nigeria. Similar attacks have been perpetrated in Cameroon in the Mayo Sava and Mayo Tsanaga Divisions, leading to more than 30,000 internally displaced people. These figures are constantly increasing following the continuous arrival of more refugees and IDPs at the Minawao camp and various localities of the region.
Substantial assistance has been provided to refugees and IDPs during the last few years and this situation has increased the operational capacities of various local and international NGOs, United nations (UN) agencies and the Cameroon Red Cross (CRC) in this region.
It should be noted that initially designed to host a maximum of 20,000 people, the Minawao camp now hosts 44,889 people. This increased number of people in the camp has resulted in, WASH facilities (water supply facilities, latrines and showers) being overstretched. Access to water is below minimum standards with a gap of 386 m3, while the rate of construction of WASH facilities is far below the rate of increase of the population in the camp. There is also a shortage of wood for the construction of latrines and showers. The construction of the planned facilities in the camp will go a long way to improve hygiene and health conditions in the camp.
Summary of Response
In January 2015, the IFRC called for action to assist with the population movement, resulting in an Emergency Appeal launched to assist the displaced and refugees. A Regional Disaster Response Team (RDRT) member was deployed by the IFRC to support the National Society in implementing activities under the Emergency Appeal. Based in Maroua, the RDRT member worked in all the Divisions of the Far North Region and in close collaboration with the Coordinator in charge of population movements in the Region. The deployed RDRT coordinated implementation of planned activities with the IFRC Regional Disaster Management Coordinator for the Central Africa Region and the Disaster Management Director of the CRC.
Between July and September 2015, an increase in incidents of violence was recorded, with seven suicide bombings having been recorded in Fotokol, Maroua and Kerawa. It should be noted that these were the first ever suicide bombing incidents to be recorded on Cameroonian soil, thus resulting in the security situation worsening and negatively affecting the implementation of planned activities.
By ending 2015, the situation in the Far North Region of Cameroon remained static with the arrival of refugees, although the number of arrivals reduced, compared to what it was at the beginning of the operation. Indeed, the town of Mora (Mayo Sava Division) hosted the highest number (835 families or 7,830 persons as of November 2014) of IDPs from Amchide, Limani, and Kolofata.
According to the Interagency report published by UNHCR for the period from 1 to 29 February 2016, the number of Nigerian refugees in the Far North of Cameroon, is estimated at 72,062, among whom 56,210 have settled at the Minawao camp (with 3,829 new arrivals registered by UNHCR since January 2016), while another 15,852 live outside the camp.
As for IDPs, there has been a considerable increase in the Mayo-Sava Division (21%) , while in the Mayo-Tsanaga Division, it is rather a decrease which is noticed (38%). According to the UNHCR Interagency report for February 2016, their numbers is estimated at 158,000 people. Most displaced persons are residents of communities in the region because of family and ethnic ties. These communities share food, water, land and non-food items with the displaced.
In addition to this, the security situation by January 2016 further delayed the implementation of activities Indeed, the security situation increasingly worsened with about 370 attacks recorded in the region in 2015; that is, about one attack per day. One of the deadliest, a quadruple suicide attack, occurred in the first hours of 25 January 2016 in the town of Bodo, Far North Region, claiming more than 30 lives and seriously injuring about 85.
Consequently, it became necessary, for security reasons, to change the initially identified communities set to receive the latrine construction works. This happened severally, while the call to tender had been launched, causing the tenders to often be changed and logistics procedure repeated severally. These changes were not easy to operate by the National Society, which was facing reluctance from divisional committees. All of this took a long time to settle, thus, greatly delaying the timeliness of the execution of works. Despite these many difficulties, and changes in the location of works, activities were carried out to support the affected communities while they went through these trying times.