Nigerian refugees in Cameroon are farming to combat hunger

DW (English)

Over 76,000 Nigerians in Cameroon's Minawao Refugee Camp are facing severe hunger due to cuts in humanitarian aid. In response, many have turned to farming for survival.

Transcript

00:00Musa Abacha has been at the Minawawa refugee camp in Cameroon's Farnock region for over five years.

00:09The camp authorities struggle to provide food and other resources to the thousands who sheltered there.

00:15Abacha finds caring for his children increasingly difficult.

00:30The 55-year-old turned to farming to support his large family.

00:49The hunger crisis has persisted for months. Everyone in the camp is affected.

00:54The UN World Food Programme, WFP, says the reduction in food aid since 2023 is due to a global funding shortfall.

01:03In response, the Cameroonian government allocated 151 hectares of agricultural land in Mayolade to the refugees.

01:12They are now growing crops like maize, granite, rice and cassava.

01:16I came here in 2014. They were giving us food and then later they stopped giving us up to how many months.

01:26They have not given us food. We'll just be suffering, starving.

01:31When they gave us this farm, we went and farmed and thank God we got seven bags of rice.

01:37When we're not having the farm, we're really suffering and thank God for the farm.

01:42The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, provides storage facilities for their harvests.

01:49With the global crisis, of course, you see that a camp that has been there for 12 years is no longer being given a priority by donors.

01:58The food distribution was not given every month, just like three times a year, which pushed people really to search for solutions.

02:12The food distribution has been a course of money, but they have got the chcia Пос

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