The governor of the Chadian province, Chari Baguirmi, announced the arrival in his region of more than 10,000 Cameroonian refugees. The refugees, mostly women and children, fled intercommunal clashes in the far north of Cameroon on August 10, 2021.
“Some 10,938 Cameroonians, mostly women, children and the elderly have been welcomed since Wednesday in Oundouma, a Chadian locality located on the banks of the Logone river“, near the Cameroonian border, told camerounactuonline.com, Sunday , the governor of the Chadian province of Chari Baguirmi, Gayang Souaré.
The governor of this Chadian province also indicated that “arrangements are underway to ensure the minimum subsistence level for these vulnerable and distressed people“. He appealed to humanitarian partners on the ground for adequate support for refugees. “We are doing a census work which will allow the needs to be assessed. The next step is to provide these people with the minimum subsistence level, ”the governor said.
According to the local newspaper, “Tchadinfos“, the public school in the village of Oundouma where the Cameroonians have settled, is struggling to accommodate these refugees. “The tables-benches are transformed into sleeping arrangements. The palm leaves are used as mats. The host population, after three days of reception, is depleting their lean season supply, ”the newspaper said. “Children crying from hunger, desperate mothers unable to feed their offspring, homeless, these people lack almost everything,” lamented the same source.
Moutchoubé Salomon, a member of the reception service contacted by the newspaper, said that populations continue to flow and care is becoming more and more difficult. “The refugees have no food or shelter, they lack everything. They are by the river where there are enough mosquitoes, these people have no mosquito nets, no blankets, no mats. The children are hungry, some are even sick. There is a humanitarian emergency, and partners must intervene to save human lives ”.
Inter-community clashes on August 10 pitted Arab herders and fishermen from the Mousgoum ethnic group in Logone-Birni, in the Far North of Cameroon. The governor of the Far North, Bakari Midjiyawa, on Friday began a 48-hour visit to the Logone-Birni district where several people were killed following tribal tensions between these two neighboring communities. The governor and his delegation were trying to find a solution to the clashes that have been opposing for several days in El Birké canton, the Mousgoum to the Choa Arabs.
Below, some images of Cameroonian refugees in Oundouma
