Humanitarian actions in Cameroon are currently underfunded, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reveals in a recent report. “Underfunding of Humanitarian aid is depriving more than a million people of lifesaving and protection services in Cameroon,” the institution indicates. 

It adds that "only 19.2 percent of the required funds for the humanitarian response in Cameroon was received halfway through 2023." In other words, only XAF46 billion of the 244 billion estimated at the start of the year have been received by the UN. This would leave some XAF197 billion to cover the shortfall. However, consolidated data in the report indicate that 27% of this funding has already been released.

This underfunding of humanitarian aid is forcing the UN to ration available resources. "Shelter and Non-food items (NFI), Education, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Sectors received less than 4% of the requirements for 2023," the organization points out.

Yet the needs to be covered remain enormous, and the number of vulnerable people continues to grow. Thus, “as of 31 March 2023, over one million internally displaced persons (IDPs), almost 646,000 returnees, and over 480,000 refugees and asylum seekers have been recorded in Cameroon, including about 349,000 refugees from the Central African Republic and 128,000 from Nigeria. People are surviving in harsh conditions without sufficient humanitarian assistance due to underfunding in the response," reports the UN.

Last May, the UN system in Cameroon indicated that some XAF244 billion were needed to cover all the humanitarian needs in Cameroon. The envelope was expected to meet the basic humanitarian needs of some 2.7 million people. 

L.A.