Cameroon: Youth revolt against forgotten crises screams for help!

Cameroon: Youth revolt against forgotten crises screams for help!

In a current report, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) emphasizes the humanitarian crisis in Cameroon and classifies the country as "the most overlooked" crisis area worldwide. This assessment is based on an annual list that documents the most neglected humanitarian crises and is now at the top of the camera. Burkina Faso has taken up the top position in the past two years, but fourth place in the current ranking, while Ethiopia and Mozambique follow second and three. The NRC emphasizes that there are eight in Africa among the ten listed countries, which underlines the continued challenges on the continent.

The criteria for this ranking relate to defects in humanitarian aid, the few media interest and lack of political commitment to the international community. Cameroon has been fighting three severe crises for over a decade: conflicts between armed groups, persistent violence in the northwest and south-west regions and the crisis in the neighboring Central African Republic. This year more than 1.1 million inland inland refugees were registered in the country, whereby almost half a million is in a particularly precarious position.

The humanitarian situation in Burkina Faso

The living conditions of the population have deteriorated greatly because the infrastructure suffers significantly, which leads to extreme hardship and hunger. These developments show how profound conflicts influence the companies in Burkina Faso and Cameroon and bring people into acute emergencies.

global neglect and media reporting

the NRC also criticizes the decreasing international solidarity with the crisis countries, while the political agenda is increasingly nationalist. According to a report by Care who examined media reporting on humanitarian crises, only 77,000 articles on humanitarian disasters in African countries were found in the first nine months of 2023. In comparison, 270,000 reports on the new iPhone and 215,000 about Prince Harry's biography were created. The discrepancy is alarming and raises questions about the priorities of the media.

The managing director of Care Austria, Andrea Barschdorf-Hager, makes it clear that the neglect of these crises does not negate their existence. According to the latest statistics, 114 million people need humanitarian aid worldwide, while many have been sold out of their homeland. This silence about the conflicts must be broken in order to generate more attention and ultimately financial support for the affected regions.

Overall, it can be seen that Cameroon and Burkina Faso have to master extreme humanitarian challenges, while observations of the international community and the media only inadequate these relevant problems. The need for increased attention and support is more urgent than ever.