Day: June 3, 2023

The conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions and the fight against Boko Haram insurgencies in the Far Noth region were ranked in the 8th position amongst the most neglected displacement crises in the world in 2022.

This is contained in a report published by the Norwegian Refugee Council on June 1, 2023.

According to the report, three criteria were taken into consideration to measure the level of neglect. First was the lack of international political will characterized by the number of UN resolutions, peacekeeping missions, diplomatic will, or international discussions on these crises.

For this aspect, the NRC notes that “the political will of the international community to contribute to political solutions remained weak” and concluded that in the absence of an international initiative to find political solutions to the crisis the level of needs cannot show signs of improvement.

The second is the lack of media attention. The NRC notes that the level of media attention was about 0.5% in 2021, and remained very low in 2022.

The percentage was calculated by the number of media coverage against the number of people displaced by each crisis, using the latest figures from UNHCR and the NRC’s IDMC (Internal Travel Monitoring Centre)

The last is the lack of humanitarian funding. It highlighted that for the 2022 financial year, funding for the crisis remained limited, with international donors covering only 55% of the humanitarian response.

This was in a context where at the beginning of 2022, “3.9 million people in Cameroon needed help, a figure that rose to 4.7 million at the end of the year “the report revealed.

According to Human Rights Watch, as of August 2022, the 6 years conflict has recorded 598,000 displaced persons and at least 2 million people need humanitarian aid in these regions.

The UN estimates that Cameroon needs about 244 billion FCFA this year to help persons in all humanitarian crises including the Boko Haram insurgencies in the Far North, the influx of Central African refugees in the East, and the Anglophone conflict.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

Yvonne Mulango who beat her child to death in Kumba, Meme division in the South West region, is being questioned by the Police.

She was rescued from a mob who beat her to near death, for killing her child. Neighbors said Mulango has been maltreating her seven-year-old child but they did not know it would come to the extent of killing her own baby.

Police forced her to carry the deceased to the mortuary.

“You maltreated her until her death, it’s your cross, you will carry it. You must put her in the mortuary. This is her own child, she personally gave birth to her…we are at the mortuary, and the population wanted to kill her but we saved her life and asked her to take the dead child to the mortuary herself,” a police officer said.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

One of the strongest pillars of the Social Democratic Front party, SDF, Hon. Dr. Cyprian Mbaya Awudu, has died.

His death was announced by the Fon of Njap, from where he originated. Njap is a village in Donga Mantung Division, North West, Cameroon. He was a titled man, called Ta Nformi Yinkfu.

The Fon of Njap revealed that the former Member of Parliament died in Dallas- Texas, after a protracted illness.

Hon. Dr. Ta Nformi Yinkfu Cyprian Mbaya Awudu, on November 19, 2019, backed out of the race for another mandate as MP for Donga Mantung Central covering Nkambe and Ndu Constituencies. He had served three mandates as MP under the SDF.

The General President of the Wimbum Cultural and Development Association, WICUDA, Nforgwei Rogers, said, this is a great loss not only to the family but “the entire Wimbum community that has lost one their fathers.”

The Fon of Chup noted that the passing of the politician “is a big shock to the whole Wimbum community and Cameroon at large.” he described him as a hard worker, “who is not indebted directly or indirectly to him. That’s an example of a man of integrity, a bulldozer that the Wimbum community will ever cry, not to talk of his Warr family.”

Source: Cameroon News Agency

More than 902,000 hectares of land is readied for planting tree seedlings this Ethiopian rainy season, according to Ethiopian Forestry Development (EFD).

Ethiopia has managed to plant 25 billion seedlings in the past 4 years through the Green Legacy Initiative.

EFD Deputy Director General Motuma Tolera told ENA that the comprehensive activity carried out through the initiative is a successful project that has mobilized massive public participation like the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

He noted that planting trees is not a matter of choice but survival for Ethiopians because unless millions of seedlings are not planted every year, we will be exposed to serious dangers caused by climate change.

“The Green Legacy Initiative is not a matter of choice as most of our mountain areas are being severely degraded,” the deputy director general said, adding that recent studies show that millions of hectares of land are also going to deteriorate unless they are quickly covered with trees. There is a lot of soil erosion.”

According to him, over 7 billion seedlings are prepared so far to plant more than 6.5 billion tree seedlings. For this reason, the tree seedlings are readied for planting after research was conducted to identify what kind of saplings to plant, in what kind of environment, and what kind of soil.

Subsequently, over 902,000 hectares of land is prepared for planting seedlings.

Motuma added that the community’s participation has been improving from time to time in seed selection, planting, and caring for the trees.

More than 250 million saplings were planted in Oromia, Sidama, South, SouthWest Ethiopia regions, and Dre Dawa City Administration during this belg season.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

A consultation forum is being held in Adama city to gather inputs for draft proclamation on protection and support of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

The consultation was organized by the Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Justice, International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Representatives of human rights institutions, civil associations, higher education institutions and other pertinent stakeholders are attending the forum, it was indicated. During the occasion, State Minister of Peace, Seyoum Mesfin said that a large number of citizens, including mothers and children, have been displaced by man-made and natural disasters in the past years.

There was no legal framework to provide complete support to IDPs in Ethiopia, he elaborated.

To this end, he stated the draft protection and support proclamation for IDPs, which is in the process of preparation, will help to provide them with humanitarian aid, protection of rights, and render other support.

According to international experience, governments have limited capacity to fully assist IDPs, so, they engage local and international aid organizations, the state minister said. Moreover, he elaborated that the preparation of draft proclamation is underway to overcome multiple challenges facing citizens, which resulted from internal displacement, due to man-made and natural calamities legally and in coordinated manner.

According to the draft proclamation, a national IDP protection and support council will be established, which will be accountable to the prime minister.

The Council will be headed by the deputy prime minister and will consist of various federal and regional government bodies, religious institutions, as well as other relevant entities, it was indicated.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency