Cameroon hosts around two million people of concern to UNHCR, including one million internally displaced people, 460,000 refugees and asylum seekers, and 466,000 internally displaced returnees. The refugees are mainly from the Central African Republic and Nigeria, while the internally displaced are mainly from the Far North, North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon. 

As of December 31, 2023, Cameroon was hosting over 355,000 verified and registered Central African refugees, mostly settled in over 300 villages (72%) and developed sites (20%) in the East, Adamaoua and North regions, and in urban areas (7%), notably in the cities of Yaoundé and Douala. 

Cameroon has always remained faithful to its long tradition of hospitality, as well as to its willingness to support all efforts by UNHCR and other partners to provide support and find durable solutions.

At national level, institutional and normative changes enshrined in Law N°2005/006 of July 27, 2005 on the status of refugees in Cameroon and Decree N° 2011/389 of November 28, 2011 on the organization and operation of bodies managing the status of refugees in Cameroon facilitate the day-to-day management of this segment of the population. They grant refugees the same rights and duties as nationals, and guarantee non-discrimination in access to basic social services.

Internationally, Cameroon is a party to the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Additional Protocol, as well as to the 1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa. It also adheres to the Global Compact on Refugees, as demonstrated by the inclusive commitments made to these populations during its various participations in the 2019 and 2023 World Refugee Fora, while also being a key player in the Plateforme d'appui aux solutions dans le cadre des déplacements forcés liés à la crise centrafricaine (PAS-RCA).

In Cameroon, UNHCR is helping to build a better future for people forcibly displaced by the Central African crisis by strengthening their protection so that they can continue to access basic rights and services, finding solutions that enable them to become self-reliant and contribute to the economies of the communities in which they find themselves.

However, the situation of Central African refugees remains precarious both in terms of protection challenges and socio-economic conditions. Access to national documentation and basic social services remains a major challenge slowing down all inclusion, resilience and empowerment initiatives. For example, out of approximately 220,000 eligible refugees, only 5,150 hold a biometric identity card, or 1.45 per cent, while many children born in Cameroon do not have birth certificates. 100,000 refugee children in the Central African Republic are out of school and face the same challenges in terms of health and access to drinking water.

This context can be explained by the lack of technical and material resources necessary to meet the needs of this population, caused by the decrease in funding allocated to humanitarian aid due to an international context that is also in crisis. 

As an equitable mechanism for sharing the burden and responsibilities towards refugees and internally displaced persons, the platform to support solutions for people forcibly displaced by the Central African crisis appears to be the appropriate and sustainable means for the signatory countries of the Yaoundé Declaration, including Cameroon, to act jointly in the search for sustainable national and regional solutions and the mobilization of the resources necessary for the implementation of the implementation of the various initiatives for refugees.

For Cameroon, the platform proposed a direction in the development of the national action plan for the implementation of the recommendations of the Yaoundé Declaration. In this process, guided by the government and supported by UNHCR, the aim is to facilitate the implementation of the national plan, whose priorities and activities converge towards the protection, empowerment and return of displaced persons from Central African forces, while improving the living conditions of host communities.