Cameroon: Far North - Over 8,000 Displaced Children Returned to School

Over 35,000 Cameroonian nursery and primary school children from 147 public schools in the Far North Region abandoned school as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency. However, over 8,000 of the children of Internally Displaced Persons, IDP, were traced and returned to school, thanks to a FCFA 460.5 million funding from the European Union to the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, through the 'EU Children of Peace,' ECHO Project.

Speaking to Cameroon Tribune in Maroua on March 9, 2016, the Focal Point for the Implementation and Monitoring of Cooperation between UNICEF and the Far North Regional Delegation of Basic Education, MINEDUB, Ousmanou Amadou Garga, said the funds were from the EU's win of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012. He added that, the funding was timely because the children lost almost everything - birth certificates, books and other official papers.

Also, parents of some of the children were either killed by Boko Haram militants in their presence or separated from them following armed attacks on their communities.