In 2017, UNHCR will continue to provide international protection and humanitarian assistance to Nigerian refugees in the Minawao camp in collaboration with the Cameroonian government, United Nations agencies and other stakeholders and in compliance with international standards.
The strategy for Nigerian refugees in the Minawao camp will include assistance and protection activities such as:
- Registration and regularly updating the database; providing durable solutions, monitoring the borders, following up cases of detention, promoting the rights of refugees (preventing refugee expulsions, freedom of movement, access to employment); preventing and fighting violence and sexual exploitation, follow-up of people with special needs;
- Promoting and empowering refugees through activities such as agriculture and livestock farming, with special emphasis on promoting refugee women and young girls; promoting education for refugees in the Camp;
- Other activities (income-generating activities, tree planting, environmental protection, fight against SGBV, health, etc.) may be carried out depending on the availability of funds.
To implement these priorities for Nigerian refugees in the Minawao camp, UNHCR will gradually focus its activities on strengthening existing social and economic mechanisms to adapt and integrate them into government services and to encourage assimilation of refugees into the economic structures of the host community through a community-based approach. The Cameroonian government will provide security for the refugees and all humanitarian workers through the deployment of security forces to prevent infiltration by Boko Haram members and other armed groups into the Minawao camp and thus maintain its civil and humanitarian nature.
The activities of UNHCR in the Far North Region of Cameroon will be implemented in an environment characterized by a complex, unstable and unpredictable security situation that can be summarized as follows:
- Reduced humanitarian space in the operations area;
- Limited refugee movement and asylum applications;
- Fear of attacks in the camp by members of the Boko Haram sect that can lead to forceful repatriation;
- Difficulties in screening and identifying refugees in transit centres;
- Difficulty in controlling access to the camp;
- Sending back of Nigerian refugees to the border;
- State of emergency in the Far North;
- Constant transfer of public servants including forces of law and order.
The initial evaluation and regular monitoring exercises in 2015 and 2016 have provided useful information and identified priorities for operations in Cameroon in 2017. These are as follows:
- Prevent SGBV and provide immediate and appropriate responses through coordinated efforts by all stakeholders;
- Strengthen child protection mechanisms by issuing birth certificates to all children born in the camp;
- Increase access to primary education to children (6 to 13 years of age) to more than 90 per cent;
- Ease access to primary healthcare, refer cases to the Mokolo District Hospital, and set up a functioning health information system;
- Improve hygiene in primary healthcare institutions by providing them with equipment and supplying sanitary kits to all women and young girls of child-bearing age to improve their hygiene conditions;
- Provide suitable vocational training to 40 per cent of uneducated and unemployed adolescents and adult refugees in the areas of agriculture, animal farming and petty trading to enable then generate income and become self-reliant;
- Distribute foodstuffs and non-food items;
- Set up livelihood and environmental protection activities; implement sustainable solutions (repatriation, installation and integration into the local population).