*Anglophone crisis! Persons with disabilities caught in between Bullets, Hunger and Neglect.*

People with disabilities are facing added risks of abandonment, neglect, displacement, loss of property, death and unequal access to food, health care, and other assistance or reconstruction in the current conflict in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

Cross section of persons with disabilities in the region. 

Governments Emergency Humanitarian Assistance  Plan and  aid from other bodies are overwhelmed with many competing priorities during this crisis. But they need to ensure that the rights and concerns of people with disabilities are addressed in aid efforts. One aspect of which is to endorse the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, which includes guidelines for inclusive humanitarian response.

While many people affected by the current impasse need assistance, those with disabilities need twice as much given their exposure risks. Physical, communication and other barriers complicate the challenges created by both the Military and the Separatists.

Challenges facing thousands of persons with disabilities in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon continue to go unnoticed. It should also be noted, that coupled with this, women and girls with disabilities face extra risk of sexual violence.

In a one on one interview with THE STATESMAN, the General Coordinator of the Coordinating Unit of Persons with Disabilities in the Northwest, Mr Nyingcho Samuel presents to us the reality of the challenges and threats faced by Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs) during this crisis.

The General Coordinator of the Coordinating
Unit of persons with disabilities (CUAPWD)
in the Northwest, Mr Nyingcho Samuel.

"There's ignorance on the part of the Cameroon government on our issues. Our social system is broken with the disappearance of our Regional Delegate of Social Affairs some five months ago. We now are in lack of social facilities to accommodate us. We are the most affected and no one seems to notice us. If care is not taken for the population of persons with disabilities, the number of  those affected would increase.

"When people run to refugee camps without PWDs,  you can only imagine what has happened to them.
We as persons with disabilities have launched a campaign to go find dialogue.  Everybody is talking about dialogue, but no one seems to know where dialogue is."

When you listen to him carefully you will accept with me that, particularly for those with newly acquired disabilities, living in conflict means struggling to obtain not only necessary medical treatment, but also access to food and sanitation.

Even if they are able to escape the fighting, PWDs face barriers, stigma, and discrimination once they reach refugee and internally displaced persons camps.

The World Health Organization estimates that about 15.3 percent of the population in any given area are living with some form of disability.

Head office of PWDs in the Northwest 

In government’s Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Plan to victims of the armed conflict in the North West and South West region, launched in June, the document ignored specific measures for people living with disabilities.

I suggest that  it's imperative for Cameroon Government, civil society and humanitarian organizations to focus on an inclusive relief plan.

                                           Ambe Macmillian A.