CHAPTER ONE

1.1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Over the first fifteen years of the 21st century, crises of humanitarian migrants in Africa most especially in CEMAC Region has been one of the topical issues on the political agenda in affairs of Humanitarian Action and in International Relations in general. Since 1960 the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and other countries in Africa have been wrecked by civil unrests caused by a number of complicated factors. The Republic of Cameroon by virtue of its geography and other factors served as a sanctuary to the refugees from Central African Republic, Nigeria and Chad.[1] This was because Cameroon has been a state party to the 1967 refugee convention, 1969 OAU protocol and incorporated aspects of the protection of refugees and IDPs in her refugee law that was passed by the lower House of Parliament in 2005.[2] By 2016, more than 20.110 Central African Refugees were hosted by Cameroon in the Lolo, Timangolo and Mbile Refugee Camps in the Kadey Division of the East Region. The Division also played host to more than a thousand refugees  from restive regions of the country. These CARs and refugees were integrated and granted protection by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other partners. From this background, this chapter attempts an inquest into issues surrounding the events that pushed the immigrants into the East the different integrationist strategies adopted towards the CARs and the refugees from other regions of Cameroon; the challenges faced by the immigrants and the impact of their integration within the East Region of Cameroon.. This chapter provides the background to the study, discusses the problem that necessitated the research, the methodology employed, the objectives to be achieved and the significance and justification for the study, amongst others.

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The Republic of Cameroon ratified the 1951 Convention and Protocol Relating to the status of refugees. Cameroon was part of the 30th October 1961 Convention and also ratified the 1967 protocol relating to the status of refugees in September 1967 whereby the different signatories agreed to apply most of the Articles of the Refugee Convention to all persons covered by the Protocol’s refugee definition. Finally, she was a signatory to the 1969 OAU Convention governing the specific aspects of refugees’ problems in Africa that entered into force on the 20th June 1974. She finally passed the 12th July 2005 law relating to the status of refugees in Cameroon.[3]

From the onset,the UNHCR has been the sole institution that was created in 1951 and implanted in Cameroon in May 1982, vested with the primary duty of refugee affairs. This institution with its bases in all countries was the sole institution that worked with it related implementing international partners in Cameroon, particularly in the East Region of Cameroon. These institutions included the Africa Humanitarian Action (AHA), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), International Medical Corps (IMC), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), International Relief and Development (IRDUS), Faites Aux Femmes,Plan Cameroun, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), AfriqueSolidarité (AS), Première Urgence-Aide MédicaleInternationale (PU-AMI), the World Food Programme (WFP), CARE International, ACTION CONTRE LA FAIM, the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Other related UN agencies were the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund formerly United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Program (WFP). The institutional national partners were government’s Ministerial Departments which were formally, led by Ministry of External Relations (MINREX). With all these inter-connected institutional frameworks, the refugees from the CAR in the Kadey Division of the East Region were granted relief aid by the donors led through the UNHCR.

The UNHCR from 2011 monitored and supervised nutritional actions in the refugee sites of Timangolo, Lolo, Mbile, Gari-Gombo and at community levels in the Kadey Division.Also the UNHCR offered blankets and supplementary feeding programmes for over 34,503 persons in refugee sites and to the host community of the Kadey.This was because humanitarian aid according to humanitarian law is usually intended to benefit both the host and the refugees. Organized vector control interventions with the involvement of community health workers in 2009 were also launched by the UNHCR and its related partners. The UNHCR provided minimum package for the reproduction health center in all the main centers of the East Region of Cameroon. This included obstetric and neo-natal care. This was to meet up with the increasing number of Refugees and IDPs who flooded both public and private hospitals and clinics of the Division. The UNHCR through IMC, MSF and the AHA also identified, ensured and took charge of the management of chronic diseases including non-communicable diseases, mental health, HIV/AIDS, TB and facilitated referral services as appropriate to the resurgent refugees from CAR within the sites that were allocated within the Kadey Division by the government of the Republic of Cameroon. Also food (Food by Prescription) was provided to about 150,000 malnourished refugees between 2011 and 2013 by the UNHCR through CRS and IMC in the Kadey Division. The Cameroon Red Cross (CRC) also provided tents that were distributed by the infirmaries in the hospitals and at the different refugee sites of the Division. This emergency appeal as a humanitarian relief to the Refugees in the region was initially launched on 03 September, 2010 and by 2012; it had assisted over 1500 refugees from the CAR within the Division.[4]