UN builds police post, classrooms for refugees

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Cameroon has constructed a new security post and 15 classrooms for children in a camp that can house over 50,000 people in the Far-North Region.

It said massive influx of refugees to the Minawao refugee camp in the region has led to grave insecurity in the area.

"We have now completed the security post at the entrance of the camp which is used by the police, the gendarmes and the military so as to really make sure that security is guaranteed because without security the refugees will not be feeling safe as well as the humanitarian workers," said UNHCR country representative Ndeye Ndiougue Ndour.

Taking the cue, the Senior Divisional Officer (SDO) for the Mayo-Tsanaga Division of the region where Minawao is located, Raymond Roksbo strongly appreciated the gesture.

"Those investments here will not only save the refugees, we also have the surrounding population. We are very grateful for the fact that the international community are taking efforts to help our government," he stated.

It should be recalled that during his visit to the camp in March 2015, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, called for greatly increased humanitarian and development assistance to Cameroon after touring the camp that is hosting tens of thousands of refugees who escaped violence in neighbouring Nigeria.

"Cameroon has demonstrated an enormous generosity opening its borders, its doors and its houses, the hearts of its people, to now more than 350,000 refugees from Nigeria and from the Central African Republic...But Cameroon is also suffering the impact of a dramatic security situation in the Far-North, part of the country due to events in Nigeria," he said.

Refugees in the camp thanked UNHCR for the assistance they are receiving although access to potable water remains a serious challenge.

Opened in July 2013, some 90 kilometres from the volatile Cameroon-Nigeria border, Minawao camp is currently hosting over 50,000 refugees from the conflict in north-eastern Nigeria caused by the Islamic barbaric terrorist group Boko Haram that has also launched several attacks in the Far-North Region of Cameroon, killed and wounded many people.

The entire region now hosts an estimated 80,000 Nigerian refugees, of which 42,000 have been verified by UNHCR.

The refugee agency is also boosting assistance to internally displaced people.

It is currently estimated that close to 200,000 Cameroonians living along the western border with Nigeria in the Far-North and North regions have moved further inland for their peace and security, thus abandoning the businesses and farms, a factor that is feared may lead to famine in that part of the country.