The Cameroonian office of the World Food Organization revealed in a recent report it has provided CFA5.3 billion in financial humanitarian aid to more than 750,000 vulnerable people between March and December 2022.

Beneficiaries are refugees from CAR (hosted in the Eastern region) and Nigeria (hosted in the Far North) as well as internally displaced persons who fled the Anglophone crisis. In detail, the document reveals, CFA3.1 billion were transferred in cash and the remaining amount was granted in the form of food kits. WFP said its agenda initially called for CFA12 billion in aid to the country, but donors did not provide the expected amounts.

The UN entity said it has only distributed a little more than 24,000 tons of food over the period under review, while it initially planned to donate 61,000 tons. "The organization only reached 71% of beneficiaries due to funding shortfalls,” the report states, stressing that "25% of the beneficiaries received cash assistance, which gives them greater flexibility in their food choices."

The good point, the report notes, is the decline in the number of Central African refugees since the 2014 crisis. The same trend was observed in the Far North region, where only 4,000 new refugees were registered last year. "Yet, floods in this region between August and October have destroyed livelihoods, animals, and property, affecting an estimated 250,000 people. Also, people in the Northwest and Southwest are still enduring the Anglophone crisis with civilians suffering from loss of livelihoods, reduced economic and social activities, forced displacement, assaults, injuries, and deaths from direct attacks on them and their property, and clashes between the army and armed groups," WFP reports.

L.A.