UN: Aid in Anglophone Cameroon increases in face of separatist attacks

Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-22 05:35:20|Editor: yan
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UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- The humanitarian response is cranking up to help at least 437,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon hit by separatist attacks, the chief UN spokesman said on Wednesday.

"The humanitarian presence and response is slowly increasing in the affected areas," the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.

"The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that urgent humanitarian concerns remain in Cameroon, with at least 437,000 people currently displaced in the Southwest, the Northwest and in neighboring departments due to hostilities between armed groups and security forces," he told a regular briefing.

Dujarric said that priority has been given to the Southwest region with 246,000 IDPs.

OCHA has strengthened its capacity in Cameroon, while other UN humanitarian agencies establish a presence in the Southwest and the Northwest regions.

OCHA says that while insecurity is affecting access to populations in the areas, the humanitarian response is also limited by a shortage of funding.

The 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan for Cameroon, which seeks 320 million U.S. dollars, is under-funded by less than 37 percent, while a response plan requesting 15 million dollars to urgently address the needs of 160,000 people has only received a 5-million-dollar rapid response grant from the United Nation's Central Emergency Response Fund, OCHA said.

Since last year, separatist fighters in Cameroon have staged attacks in Cameroon's English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions in protest of marginalization by the country's French-speaking majority.

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