Cameroon and the refugee crisis you’ve probably never heard of
As foreign aid budgets around the western world are slashed, what happens to displaced people in desperate need?
by: Hassane Hamadou
3 Jun 2025
Fadimatou is living in Nyabi, a village in Cameroon, with hopes to get better life one day. Image: Norwegian Refugee Council
Share
Turn on the news, open up social media, glance over newspaper headlines – you may see the horrors unfolding in Gaza staring back at you. What you will not see are the stories of people forced to flee their homes in Cameroon, which according to my organisation, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), was the most neglected displacement crisis in 2024.
Each year, NRC publishes a report of the 10 most neglected displacement crises in the world. The purpose is to focus on the plight of people whose suffering rarely makes international headlines, who receive little or no assistance, and on crises that seldom get the international diplomatic engagement they need.
Cameroon has appeared on this list almost every year since its inception in 2016. It is a case study in global neglect: little international engagement, under-reported and underfunded.
The central-African country is home to 3.4 million people in need of humanitarian support, and is grappling with three distinct and protracted crises. Each of these crises needs greater financial investment and international diplomatic engagement if we are to hope for a resolution and a brighter future for the next generation.
In the east region of the country, hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) have sought refuge. Many have been displaced for over a decade, meaning they have now depleted their savings and need help getting back on their feet.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertisement
Thousands of children born since their families arrived in Cameroon lack birth certificates, leaving them outside of the formal systems of support, unable to attend school and putting them at risk of statelessness were they to return to CAR.
Djeinabou, 32, a refugee from CAR told my team: “Life is very difficult at times, and we get by with a little farming and working in small businesses to try and find enough to eat. We worry about the future of our children. They need to go to school. We have been forgotten here in Cameroon and it’s very difficult for us to even think about the future of our families.”
Hassane Hamadou in Cameroon. Image: supplied
In the north-west and south-west regions, violence and insecurity are devastating lives: 600,000 people are displaced in the region, and many are struggling to access even the most basic services including safe and clean water and housing.
In the far north region, sandwiched between Nigeria and Chad, ongoing fighting between armed groups is forcing families from their homes and villages, tearing them from their farms and their livelihoods. Most displaced people are now living on marginal land, without legal protection or the ability to feed their families. Without adequate support they are struggling to survive.
This trifecta of crises is continuing to steal the futures of people in Cameroon, and yet much of the international community overlooks this ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Even before the UK aid budget was slashed, humanitarian funding for Cameroon from the UK has been absent a number of years. This neglect is a choice.
The UK is not alone. Less than half of the required humanitarian funding needed for Cameroon was provided in 2024 – equal to just US$49 per person in need of aid or less than $1 a week. This has left huge gaps in the aid response and many thousands of people without support. The needs are vast: 1.4 million children require education assistance, and double that number of people are regularly going hungry. This underfunding trend looks set to continue amid global aid cuts. Just 11% of required humanitarian funding has been delivered so far this year.
But we must not accept neglect as a foregone conclusion.
While the gap between what was provided and what is needed may seem an immense challenge – it is not unachievable. $200 million in humanitarian funding for Cameroon was lacking last year – this is less than Ronaldo earned in 2024, and a fifth of what Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour grossed that same year.
Teams from humanitarian organisations including my NRC colleagues are working tirelessly to make an impact with what resources we do have. Last year, NRC alone was able to support 200,000 people in Cameroon. We provided assistance to families so they were able to access nutritious food, we supported children back into school including by helping them get birth certificates, and we worked with local authorities to enable displaced people to access land which can be farmed.
We know we can do more with greater support.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
In a world reshaping itself politically, economically, and environmentally, this is a moment for us all to confront the structural failures driving the neglect of millions. We need to break the cycle so children in Cameroon can return to school, and parents no longer have to worry when they will next to be able to put food on the table.
Write to your MP, donate if you are able, share this story on your social media. Tell the people of Cameroon that their plight matters to you. If each of us chooses to act, to invest, and to stand in solidarity, we can build a future where no one is left behind. What we do this year will be remembered.
Will you sign Big Issue's petition to ask Keir Starmer to pass a Poverty Zero law? It's time to hold government to account on poverty once and for all.
