* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
By Merilyne Ojong
One-year-old Salamatou looks emaciated and exhausted as she rests in the arms of her grandmother at the district hospital in Batouri in the East region of Cameroon.
After her father was killed and her mother slaughtered in the violence in CAR, Salamatou’s 34-year-old grandmother Fati, carried her in her arms and trekked for 4 months in the bush before entering the Cameroonian territory.
The cattle Fati herded along provided milk for Salamatou until the rebels caught up with them. She had to flee again with Salamatou, leaving the cattle behind. After this incident Salamatou had no milk to drink.
Fortunate enough to survive, they both arrived in a dire condition at Gbiti – the border post on the Cameroon’s East region. Salamatou was particularly affected. In addition to a wound on her head and a broken arm, she was severely malnourished. Salamatou was immediately referred to the nearest district hospital in Batouri town. Upon arrival at the hospital, she was diagnosed with severe candidiasis which the local medical staff suspect to be a manifestation of the HIV virus.
Salamatou is currently being treated for candidiasis as well as severe malnutrition. Her grandmother, Fati, is all by herself and has only Salamatou for company. She is terrified at the thought of anything happening to Salamatou. “I am all she has got and she is all I have here. I don’t want her to die as well,” says Fati.
Salamatou is among scores of young refugee children arriving in Cameroon who require immediate medical attention. Batouri district hospital alone has received nearly 200 severely malnourished children with medical complications since mid-March this year. On an average 5 children per day are being brought to this hospital, the majority aged between 0 and 5.
“The medical complications children are reporting range from tuberculosis to dehydration, pneumonia, severe anaemia and malaria,” says Wassou Madeleine, in-charge of the malnutrition unit at the hospital.
There are only 11 beds at the centre. Due to overcrowding, two or sometimes even three children are sharing the same bed. Those who cannot be accommodated are sleeping in makeshift wards created in tents within the hospital compound.
“We have registered 25 deaths so far and are currently handling 6 critical cases. Our team is totally stretched to its capacity and we urgently need more resources to cope with the number of cases arriving every day,” she adds.
Humanitarian organisation Plan International is among the main aid agencies responding to the present refugee crisis across all the 5 refugee sites in Cameroon. Plan has launched a two-year response with main focus on children. “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 needs of refugee children and their mothers,” says Henri-Noel Tatangang, Plan’s emergency specialist for West Africa region.
Plan will also be providing equipment to health units to accommodate the large number of refugees around the 5 sites.
Inadequate availability of funds has emerged as one of the major gaps in humanitarian agencies ability to reach out to all refugees. “Compared to the need in the sites, the available funds with the humanitarian agencies are insufficient. We are working flat out to ensure that every single child in need is cared for in this crisis,” says Tatangang.
(Name of the case study has been changed)
(Merilyne Ojong is Information Officer with Plan International in Cameroon. This is the second of a series of three special reports on CAR refugees in Cameroon.)
