The United Nations (UN) has warned that the ongoing crisis in Cameroon can no longer be forgotten and needs to be high on the agenda, following reports of around 4.3-million Cameroonians mostly women and children, desperately needing life-saving assistance.

Presenting it’s 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan for the West African country, in coordination with the Cameroonian government and aid partners, Allegra Baiocchi and Cameroon’s Civil Protection Director Yap Mariatou, warned at the Thursday launch in Geneva, Switzerland that there was a drastic increase in humanitarian need across the country, UN News reported.

“Hundreds of thousands of people on Cameroon’s territory need urgent assistance and protection,” Baiocchi said, adding that “attacks against civilians have increased and many conflict-affected people are surviving in harsh conditions without humanitarian assistance due to the dramatic under-funding of the response. Cameroon today can no longer be a forgotten crisis; it needs to be high on our agenda.”

With needs rising by 31 percent in a year, the UN today estimates that around 4.3-million people in Cameroon – one in six people and mostly women and children – require life-saving assistance.

The joint Humanitarian Response Plan 2019 seeks $299-million to assist 2.3-million vulnerable people, more than half of those in need. Last year, a $320-million response plan for Cameroon was only 40 per cent funded.

The aggravation of the conflict in western regions is the main driver behind the increase, with armed attacks in the far north, and new refugees coming from the Central African Republic also increasing demand for urgent aid.

Insecurity and violence in these regions have uprooted 437 000 people from their homes and forced over 32 000 to seek refuge in neighbouring Nigeria. Four million people are affected by the conflict in Cameroon’s west, says the UN.

In addition, due to the deteriorating situation in northeast Nigeria, more than 10 000 new refugees arrived in Cameroon in 2018, bringing the number of Nigerian refugees to 100 000.