Cameroon occupies 8th place in the ranking of the world’s most neglected displacement crises, according to a report published on June 2nd 2023 by the Norwegian Refugee Council .

Cameroon’s position has improved since 2021. That year, Cameroon was in 3rd place.
The Council uses three criteria to measure the level of neglect of crises in the world. Firstly, the lack of international political will, as measured by the number of UN resolutions, peacekeeping missions, diplomatic will and international discussions on these crises.

In this respect, the NRC notes that “the political will of the international community to contribute to political solutions” remains “weak”. This was already the case in 2021. The Norwegian Refugee Council concludes that “in the absence of an international initiative to find political solutions to the triple crisis in Cameroon, the level of needs in the country is unlikely to show any signs of improvement in the short or medium term. 2023 looks set to be another difficult year for the Cameroonian people“.

The second criterion is the lack of media attention, which is reflected in the online coverage of the movement of people. “To compare media attention to the different crises, we calculated media coverage in relation to the number of people displaced by each crisis, using the latest figures from the UNHCR and the NRC’s IDMC (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre)“, the report states. Media attention was around 0.5% in 2021, but remains “very low” even in 2022.

The final criterion is the lack of humanitarian funding. For 2022, “funds remained limited, with international donors covering only 55% of the humanitarian response”, observes the Norwegian council. At the start of 2022, “3.9 million people in Cameroon were in need of aid, a figure which had risen to 4.7 million by the end of the year, even though the country remained far from the attention of the international community“, says the report. It should be remembered that in 2021, the funds mobilised internationally covered 53% of needs.

Cameroon is facing three major crises of humanitarian concern: the separatist conflict in the North-West and South-West regions, the war against Boko Haram in the Far-North region, and the influx of Central African refugees in the East, Adamaoua and North regions.