As violence in northeastern Nigeria causes massive displacement, thousands of families have fled across the border into Cameroon where the United Nations World Food Programme, or the WFP, is providing humanitarian assistance despite insecurity and logistical challenges. The story of the program comes to SaharaReporters from a report issued by the United Nations World Food Programme that is currently underway in Cameroon.
Leaving behind burned homes and often running for their lives, close to 8,000 Nigerians have fled since May into the remote northernmost region of Cameroon from the northern Nigerian states of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno, from where 200 Nigerian school girls were kidnapped in April. Local communities have provided food and shelter to the refugees, but food stocks are running low and many newcomers are already undernourished.
WFP began providing assistance to this new wave of Nigerian refugees in June, reaching nearly 7,500 in a first round of food distributions. A nutrition assessment at the end of June found alarming levels of malnutrition among newly-arrived children. In one village in the Waza district, acute malnutrition rates were as high as 25 percent, well above the 15 percent emergency threshold.
Even before the latest influx, Cameroon was already hosting refugees from Nigeria in the main Minawao camp and in communities.
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