Cameroon: Internally Displaced People

(asked on 20th May 2019) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the merits of the findings of the UN human rights high commissioner that there is a window of opportunity to arrest the crises that have led to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in Cameroon.


Answered by
Harriett Baldwin Portrait
Harriett Baldwin
This question was answered on 28th May 2019

​The UK remains deeply concerned at the worsening humanitarian situation in the North-West and South-West (Anglophone) regions of Cameroon and reports of human rights violations and abuses committed by both security forces and armed separatists. Violence is driving people from their homes and impacting on the lives of ordinary civilians, particularly women and children. The UN assesses that over 530,000 people have been internally displaced as a result of the conflict and has recorded over 35,000 refugees in Nigeria. The UK is providing lifesaving assistance to thousands of people following a £2.5m contribution in December 2018 to the UN emergency appeal to address the crisis.

The UK welcomes the visit to Cameroon by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Government of Cameroon's reported openness to working with the UN to address the severe humanitarian and human rights situation in the Anglophone regions. It is imperative that urgent action is now taken by the Government of Cameroon, with the support of regional partners and the wider international community, to prevent further escalation of the crisis. This includes the establishment of a credible political dialogue to address the root causes of the crisis. The UK stands ready to support.

The British Government regularly raises concerns about Cameroon at the highest levels including at the UN Security Council on 13 May and when I met with Cameroon's High Commissioner to the UK on 30 April. The UK continues to call for unhindered humanitarian access to affected populations, an end to violence on all sides and investigations into all reports of human rights violations and abuses.

Reticulating Splines