Cameroon is one of the 13 countries chosen for the implementation of the UN pilot program for legal identity.

In Cameroon, the issue of people’s identity persists. A plague that is growing thanks, in particular, to internally displaced persons or asylum seekers. Many cannot present a legal identity such as a birth certificate or a national identity card.

The forced displacement of many families has resulted in the loss or destruction of personal and civil identity records and documents, creating problems for a large number of IDPs who have no means of proving their identity.

To tackle this plague, the National Civil Status Office and the International Organization for Migration were in consultation on January 27th. It was about developing a coordinated approach to the holistic implementation of legal identity in Cameroon.

Efforts are thus being made by the public authorities to solve this situation, assures the DG of the National civil status office, Alexandre Marie Yomo, the project “ Support for internally displaced persons and vulnerable mobile populations in the Central and Eastern regions of Cameroon through evaluation and access to legal identity solutions”, launched in September 2022, plans at least 400 people in the Far North region where Boko Haram is rife, and in those of the North West and South West to obtain their identity documents.