* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
By Jaire Moutcheu
Aminatou, 15, has recently arrived in Mbile, one of the three sites for the Central African Republic (CAR) refugees in the East region of Cameroon. She is an orphan and is currently living with her grandmother. Her mother died a few years ago due to an illness and her father was killed last December in the ongoing violence in CAR.
Fleeing the conflict, Aminatou arrived in Cameroon a few weeks ago, heavily pregnant and worn out by the treacherous journey spanning over 600 kilometres. “I walked with my grandmother for three months before I reached the Cameroonian border. It was a very hard journey. I went without food and water for days. I wasn’t sure if I would survive,” she says adding she has no idea where her husband is.
Aminatou crossed over to the Cameroonian side at the border post of Gbiti in Cameroon’s East region. Considering that Gbiti is guarded by the Cameroonian forces, it is one of the more popular entry points for CAR refugees for safe passage. Upon their arrival the refugees are taken to a temporary site in Gbiti where they stay until they can be transferred to refugee sites.
Barely days after her arrival, Aminatou delivered a girl at the temporary site in Gbiti in very difficult conditions. “I delivered my baby a week ago on a mat inside a tent with the help of some women,” she says. After childbirth, Aminatou was transferred to Mbile refugee site, where she is currently waiting to be allocated a family tent.
For now, she, and her baby are in a community transit tent shared by about 120 other people. “My baby and I sleep on a mat that I borrowed from a family living in the same tent,” she says. “I feel sick, I can feel pain all over my body. I don’t have shoes to walk about or even clothes to wear, and neither does my baby. I wrap her with this only piece of cloth I have. It is too cold in the night, but I have no option.”
Aminatou is suffering from Yellow fever as indicated in her medical records prepared by the nurse at the health unit on the refugee site. Her eyes are swollen and she is reporting pain in them. Aminatou and her baby are also running the risk of malnutrition. “I am living on just one meal a day provided at the site,” she says.
Aminatou’s situation is one of the many tragic stories of thousands of CAR refugees currently sheltering in the 5 refugee sites in Cameroon: Mbile, Gado and Lolo in the East region; and Borgop and Ngam in the Adamawa region in the northern part of the country. According to UNHCR among more than 80,000 CAR refugees that have arrived in Cameroon, over 36,000 are children, including teenage mothers.
Humanitarian organisation Plan International is among the main aid agencies responding to CAR refugees across all 5 refugee sites in Cameroon. “Being a child-centred organisation, Plan’s top priority is the welfare of refugee children. The immediate relief phase of our two-year emergency response will be geared towards meeting the urgent hygiene and sanitation needs of refugee children and their mothers,” says Henri-Noel Tatangang, Plan’s emergency specialist for West Africa region.
Plan launched its relief work in the first week of May with the distribution of first aid items and drugs at a health centre catering to refugees in the East region. Additionally, hygiene kits have been distributed to 3000 refugee families. A hygiene kit contains bars of soap, sanitary towels for women, tooth brushes, tooth paste and a plastic bucket.
“There are thousands of children in refugee sites and meeting their needs will remain our main focus. Over the coming weeks Plan will extend its response to particularly cover the areas of child protection and education where there is a huge unmet need,” says Tatangang.
Child malnutrition has emerged as a major challenge for the humanitarian agencies responding to the refugee crisis. The district hospital in Batouri in the East region is overwhelmed with the number of malnourished refugee children it is receiving on a daily basis who have with medical complications.
“Since mid-March we have received about 200 severely malnourished children, mostly under the age of 5, with various medical complications. Of these, 25 children have succumbed to their conditions so far,” says Wassou Madeleine in-charge of the malnutrition unit at the Batouri district hospital.
As part of its response, Plan is also trying to mobilise resources to address the issue of malnutrition among refugee children. “The number of deaths related to malnutrition among children is unbearable. We must do everything to save every single life,” says Plan’s emergency specialist for West Africa Henri-Noel Tatangang.
(Name of the case study has been changed)
(Jaire Moutcheu is PR & Communications Advisor for Plan International in Cameroon. This is the first of a series of three special reports.)
