Government and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have been urged to step up the protection and support as well as respect the rights of the growing number Cameroonians forced to live as internally displaced persons, IDPs, as a result of the armed conflicts rocking the North West, South West and Far North regions.
Participants and organisers pose for group picture at opening of training
The appeal was made during a two day advocacy workshop organised by the Foundation for Peace and Solidarity (FPS) and facilitated by the Global Engagement Network on Internal Displacement in Africa (GENIDA) in collaboration with the department of international law of the International Relations Institute of Cameroon, IRIC.
Organisers addressing CSOs and IDPs during training
The training funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) through GENIDA brought together key stakeholder organisations to be sensitized on the laws and policies relevant to IDP protection and support and to enable them brainstorm and form strategies that could be used to engage government in the furtherance of protection and support to the suffering IDPs.
The participants were among other things drilled on international and continental frameworks, strategies for IDP protection and assistance, needs and challenges of assisting IDP women and children, undertaking needs assessments, dealing with trauma, national frameworks and mechanisms, an overview of global, regional and national state of IDPs among others.
Speaking to reporters after opening the training, Sophie Monono, Director of FPS, an NGO which focuses on ensuring respects for human rights and human dignity, said the training was timely and would permit the voices and ordeals of IDPs to be heard.
“It is when you hear and listen to someone that you can better help or assist the person,” Monono stated, adding, that strategies on how to develop structures to support and protect IDPs will be created through the training to help government and CSOs step up their interventions to ameliorate the deplorable living conditions of IDPs.
On her part, Dr. Romola Adeola, Director of GENIDA, said the situation of IDPs in Africa is really an issue of significant concern even though significant steps are being taken by African leaders to respond to the issue especially with the development of the African Union Convention for the protection of IDPs adopted by AU Heads of States and governments in 2009.
“…we really need to see how we can strategically give a voice to these frameworks through implementations and more importantly developing strategies which could be used for the furthering of assistance and providing peace,” Romola said.
She called on governments and stakeholders to ensure compliance with all relevant frameworks especially the AU convention on which centres on preventing arbitrary internal displacements and more importantly assessment of the vulnerabilities of IDPs and those with disabilities.
As revealed by Andrian LEE, Acting Deputy Chief of Missions at the British High Commission, there are around 40 million IDPs around the world with around 25% from Sub-Saharan Africa including Cameroon. He said the UK takes very seriously the responsibility to protect civilians in its diplomacy and provide humanitarian assistance notably basic needs in collaboration with governments, UN agencies and NGOs.
Harping on the situation of IDPs in Cameroon, Lydie Safi Llunga, Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, disclosed that insecurity has made IDP situation skyrocketed with humanitarian access getting difficult due to activities of gunmen especially in the two Anglophone regions.
The UNHCR Protection Officer said the over a million IDPs displaced in the Far North, North West and South West regions are confronted with protection issues like civil documentation, food, difficult livelihood. Llunga said the magnitude of the situation is a call for government and also the humanitarian organisations to address the problems to permit the IDPs return to their bases.
By Doh Bertrand Nua
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