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Cameroon’s refugee
crisis  Refugees from Chad at the camp in Maltam. More than 100,000 people fled to Cameroon in a two-day period (between 2 February and 4 February 2008) to escape the armed fighting in the Chadian capital of N’Djamena. While exact estimates of the number of refugees varied and the majority of refugees have since returned to Chad, there are still more than 8,000 refugees near the border who are expected to remain in Cameroon in the near future. UNDP, through its Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR), provided USD 100,000 to the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s office to support UN coordination efforts and deployed two UNDP immediate crisis response advisors within days of the crisis. One advisor supported UNDP’s ability to respond to the crisis while the other supported the Resident Coordinator’s office with the overall coordination of the UN emergency response. This coordinated response to the crisis was an example of strong collaboration among UN organizations. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was assigned the role of coordinator of the humanitarian emergency, and UN organizations in Cameroon quickly defined their roles and responsibilities in the response to the refugee crisis. The Government of Cameroon was instrumental in facilitating the humanitarian response. In accordance with the principles of international humanitarian law, it immediately opened its borders to expedite the arrival of refugees from Chad. The government collaborated with UN and non-governmental organizations to ensure the protection and transfer of the refugees from the transit sites to the refugee camp of Maltam along the border town of Kousseri. In addition, the government provided food, pharmaceutical products and mineral water to the refugees while they were in the transit camps. Within days of the crisis, the UN country team requested and obtained funding support from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund for more than USD 4 million to cover the immediate needs of the refugees. In order to coordinate the humanitarian activities more effectively as well as support early recovery activities within the humanitarian setting, UNDP established a liaison office in Kousseri. With BCPR’s financial support, UNDP Cameroon carried out a rapid needs assessment to identify the early recovery needs of host communities in the area of Kousseri, with a particular focus on women and youth. The rapid needs assessment involved local authorities, community-based organizations and women and youth groups. As a result of this assessment, UNDP developed an early recovery programme for the region of Kousseri with three key components:
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