Food Assistance Fact Sheet - Cameroon

May 30, 2017

Food Security Situation

 
Cameroon
CIA World Factbook

  • Recurring environmental shocks, poverty, and armed conflict and instability in the region contribute to high rates of food insecurity in vulnerable areas of Cameroon. Chronic malnutrition affects more than 31 percent of children under five years of age.

  • Cameroon’s Adamawa, East, and North regions are hosting an estimated 274,900 refugees who have fled conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR). According to the UN, more than 1 million people, including refugees, are food insecure in these regions, and more than 101,000 children are acutely malnourished.

  • Approximately 96,000 Nigerian refugees have fled into the Far North Region, and Boko Haram-related violence has forced over 223,000 Cameroonians to leave their homes and abandon their fields. The food and nutrition situation among these populations has deteriorated significantly due to these shocks, particularly among refugees and children who are internally displaced. The UN World Food Program (WFP) estimates that 1.5 million people in Far North face food insecurity. In some parts of Far North, acute malnutrition has exceeded emergency thresholds.

Food Assistance Programs

  • The Office of Food for Peace (FFP) assists food-insecure Nigerian and CAR refugees, internally displaced persons, and vulnerable host communities in the four conflict-affected regions of Cameroon. FFP supports WFP to respond to acute food insecurity and malnutrition through general food distributions and supplementary feeding, with a focus on pregnant and lactating women and children under five years of age. WFP is providing fortified foods to increase the nutritional status of these beneficiaries.
  • FFP also supports the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to provide ready-to-use therapeutic food to children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in these four regions.  UNICEF is also working to strengthen nutrition monitoring and treatment, and to train community members in caring for children experiencing acute malnutrition. 

Food for Peace Contributions

Total Contributions:

  U.S. Dollars Metric Tons
Fiscal Year 2017 $22 million 16,890 MT
Fiscal Year 2016 $23.8 million 17,220 MT
Fiscal Year 2015 $18.3 million 11,950 MT

Fiscal Year 2017 Contribution Breakdown:

  U.S. Dollars Metric Tons
Title II Development ---- ----
Title II Emergency $22 million 16,890 MT
Emergency Food Security Program (EFSP) ---- ----

Food Security Situation information is provided by UNHCR and WFP.
FY 2017 contribution based on funds obligated to date.

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