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The UN Security Council will hold this month's first informal meeting on Cameroon to discuss the worsening humanitarian crisis that left three million people in search of food.
The United States is organizing the May 13 meeting after persuading African councils to drop their initial reluctance to talks on the two-year separatist conflict in western Cameroon.
South Africa, a non-permanent member of the Council, had expressed reservations, saying that the African Union was leading the international response to the crisis, according to diplomats.
"It is time for the Security Council to attack what is happening in Cameroon, where we are witnessing a devastating humanitarian crisis," a spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations said Saturday.
"We hope that this meeting will draw more attention to this disaster and encourage a stronger regional and international response from Member States, the United Nations and civil society, to prevent the situation from deteriorating. more. "
Cameroon is torn apart by conflict between separatists and government forces in the English-speaking West, coupled with an influx of refugees from the Central African Republic and Nigeria.
In Cameroon, more than one in six – 4.3 million people – need humanitarian aid, an increase of 30% over 2018, according to aid officials. # 39; UN.
The meeting will place particular emphasis on the separatist conflict, according to a note sent by the United States to council Friday and seen by AFP.
More than 560,000 people have been driven from their homes since 2017, including 32,000 who fled to Nigeria, the note added.
Hungry children
Human rights groups have accused the United Nations of ignoring the conflict in Cameroon, where separatists from the English-speaking regions are demanding the independence of the majority French-speaking country.
The government responded by deploying thousands of soldiers.
More than 200 members of the security forces and at least 500 civilians have been killed, according to figures from the International Crisis Group.
Cameroon is also shocked by the violence spreading to neighboring Nigeria, which is fighting against Boko Haram insurgents, and ongoing unrest in the Central African Republic.
Three million people need food aid, tens of thousands of children are out of school and 220,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition, according to the United States note.
In February, the government and humanitarian organizations issued a $ 299 million appeal for humanitarian needs, but only 11 percent was collected.
"Cameroon has not witnessed a humanitarian emergency of such magnitude and the causes of the various crises are only intensifying," said the UN humanitarian coordinator. Cameroon, Allegra Baiocchi, end of April.
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