On October 16th, Marthe Wandou, founder and director of the NGO ALDEPA and Tholder of the 2021 Alternative Nobel Prize, and Edouard Kaldapa, director of Caritas Maroua, North Cameroon, were our guests. On a conference in cooperation with Caritas International, they spoke to an interested audience about the situation in northern Cameroon and their work. Both organizations have been working for decades in development, peace and human rights in the "Extrême Nord" region, the outermost North of Cameroon, on the border to Nigeria and Chad. Since 2015, the region and neighboring areas in Nigeria, Niger and Chad have been suffering from the effects of a violent conflict surrounding the extremist sect Boko Haram. Their attacks in northern Cameroon alone have forced around 450 thousand Cameroonians to flee. Additionally, around 120 thousand Nigerian refugees are seeking protection in the region. Massive malnutrition leads to irreversible consequences for children and other vulnerable groups. Caritas Maroua and Adelpa, with the support of Caritas International, have been providing life-saving aid for the crisis victims since 2017.
Despite extensive international support of a stabilizing process under the aegis of the Lake Chad Basin Commission and the UNDP, the situation continues to escalate, the number of displaced people is rising, and the humanitarian crisis is intensifying. This is compounded by severe flooding as a result of climate change.
Local organizations like Aldepa and Caritas Maroa work more effective as well as more cost-efficiently and know the specific context better than the numerous international NGOs, which only began their interventions with the crisis. Greater involvement of local civil society in the stabilization strategy would significantly increase the chances of success. Marthe Wandou and Edouard Kaldapa emphasized during the discussion that Germany is perceived as an honest broker in Cameroon and make a crucial contribution to strengthening local civil society in conflict resolution forums in the region.