Appeal for Food Aid by Southern Cameroons aka Ambazonia (commonly referred to as Cameroon) Refugees in Adagom, Ogoja, Cross River State, Nigeria.

Hunger is ravaging the Cameroon refugees communities in the Cross River State, Nigeria. The refugees Cry out for Food Aid! Take it seriously and come to their aid before disaster strikes. Hunger is real. It is personified and stands tall like a gruesome monsters worst than the one they have been fleeing from in the Cameroons. Paradoxically, they're not on hunger strike. They simply lack food on the table and ways of sustenance in a foreign land. They're crying because they have nowhere to turn to in order to have food to eat daily. The situation is so alarming now that there is nothing at all but at first when you cured it in the morning, it resurfaced in the afternoon and when you handled it in the afternoon it showed up in the evening. Woe betide those who have children or are sick or are nursing mothers or suffer from a disability.

Everything as per now points to malnutrition, diseases and famine skyrocketing within our communities. Experience shows that some refugees faced with this danger have escaped back to their villages only to be hunted and killed by marauding genocidal regime forces of Cameroun or wounded/maimed. Some have ran back to the camps with terrible stories to tell. The survival game has kept others playing the cat and mice games. All in all Hunger has adversely affected especially the sick, elderly, nursing mothers and the children. This has sent the youths and able population wild. The youths are engaged In strange and dangerous activities in order to survive in an environment that is hostile and plagued with the fear of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    
Southern Cameroons/Ambazonian Refugees in Ojoga protesting at the UNHRC Office in Cross River State, Nigeria

When l interviewed one of the refugees in the camp, this is what he had to say, "We cry because we are hungry. We cry and nobody seems to listen. We are over 9000 of us spread out in three refugees camps in Ogoja, Nigeria alone. Our situation is precarious."

I traveled to Ogoja three weeks ago and visited the refugees camps situated in Ogende, Adagom l and lll. I learned a lot about their experiences, culture in the camps and history. While we appreciate the organizations building up the camps and sustainably managing them and acknowledge the resilience of the refugees in the face of the challenges they encounter, we learned that amongst other things, hunger remains the worst of the pains they undergo on a daily basis. My personal experience shows that hunger isn't something one can cure with a one-stop fix. It needs sustained and sustainable efforts which are totally lacking in the camp environment. The worse revelation which l got was that the occasional support they used to receive from UNHCR and Ayah Foundation has dried out. The cash based assistance by UNHCR amounting 4600 naira per person each month has not been given since July 2020.

Other Empowerment programs are slow to reach all households. This has led to an unprecedented proportion of hunger in the camps and Malnutrition thereof. This led to strikes and protests marches in Adagom camp recently where refugees blocked the entrance to the settlement and sang pathetic songs expressing their dismay and despair and praying for Ambazonians of good will, world Humanitarians, Nigerian government officials and the international community to come to their assistance to enable them feed themselves and assist by intervening to end the war in the Cameroons by granting Ambazonians a homeland to which the refugees can safely return to in order to rebuild their ruined lives.

Similarly, they cried out that the genocidal war has ruined them considerably and dispossessed them of their birthright thus, the marauding genocidal lrc terrorists forces must be pushed back so that Ambazonia can emerge and put an end to the more than a century old territorial conflict.