UN's INVOLVEMENT IN THE UPRISING IN CAMEROON
What has been the reaction/ Involvement of the UN, Since the Political Uprising in the Cameroons and the Consequent war?.
United Nations – On May 30, 2018, the United Nations declared a humanitarian crisis in Southern Cameroons and started organizing aid. Through the declaration, the United Nations assumed responsibility for the safety of civilians in Southern Cameroons, and to this end it could intervene against both warring parties.
The United Nations is supporting the State of Cameroon by improving access to and use of health services for people in the most vulnerable areas. These include reproductive health services, HIV/AIDS prevention, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases, including the prevention and management of malnutrition.
What started as a struggle for equality and justice by citizens of southern Cameroon has spiraled into a full-blown crisis. Rebel groups seeking an end to what they consider domination of the anglophone south by the francophone north have taken up weapons against the government’s security forces, causing hundreds to die while tens of thousands are forced from their homes.
Factories have been shuttered, roads have become impassable, warehouses have been destroyed, and truck drivers are routinely kidnapped for ransom.
But is providing Health enough?
It's definitely not enough, The current crisis heated up in 2016 .
The current crisis heated up in 2016 when activists in Cameroon’s western provinces protested the official use of the French language in these predominantly anglophone regions.
In the past two years, those protests have turned deadly.
$470 million estimated total loss of revenue as of October 2018
A prominent Cameroonian scholar and professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, Achille Mbembe, observes that Anglophone Cameroonians complain about being marginalized because the administration doesn’t speak their language, adding that the controversy over language is an expression of deeper, long-held grievances around good governance and equitable political and social representation.
This alone says it all , why should I be ruled be some that doesn't speak my language, how will I understand him/her?
I think that the World should Think about this.
What is life without communication, language is the first form of expression for every human,
UN Secretary-General António Guterres in September 2017 urged Cameroonian authorities to “promote measures of national reconciliation aimed at finding a durable solution to the crisis, including by addressing its root causes.”
This they know but LRC Ignores..
In her report to the 39th session of the UN’s Human Rights Council last September, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet mentioned the crisis in Cameroon: “Fighting has intensified in the so-called anglophone regions between security forces and armed groups.
“The government has not acted to promote the conference on dialogue suggested by religious leaders, and there is still no mechanism in place which could envisage a halt in hostilities in the short term.”
You know ,Approximately 437,000 people are internally displaced across the affected provinces, said David Malan of the local Norwegian Refugees Council Office in an interview with Africa Renewal.
UN's reaction so far is actually not enough.
Most displaced people are taking refuge in remote rural areas or in surrounding bushlands and forests, several humanitarian agencies confirmed. Mr. Malan added that “getting them needed help has proved challenging.”
Cameroon’s GDP growth had been projected to reach 3.8% this year, a rebound from the previous year, due to an increase in natural gas production. That goal is now likely unattainable.
The country’s economic growth “depends on the government’s ability to successfully handle the violent secessionist conflict in the two anglophone regions,” the World Bank stated last October.
Groupement inter-patronal du Cameroun (GICAM), an association of business leaders, declared in September that violence in the Camerons inwas forcing companies to halt operations.
Due to the crisis, GICAM estimates total loss of revenue as of October 2018 to be about $470 million, while 13,000 jobs, mostly in the agricultural sector, have been or are about to be loss .
The UN has done a few things in the years past but that is not enough as lives and properties are still lost on a regular basis.
