Cameroon Humanitarian Emergency

Multiple, overlapping crises are shrinking the availability of care for women and girls in Cameroon. In the far north and north–west/south–west conflict, clinics are damaged or intermittently closed, roads are blocked, and blackouts cut power to maternity wards. Reports show gender-based violence rising in displacement sites as privacy, lighting and safe transport disappear. These are the very conditions that also propel births into unsafe settings and demolish referral pathways for survivors who need post-rape care within hours, not days. UNFPA-supported teams have helped keep essential services functioning, from women- and girl-friendly spaces to mobile sexual and reproductive health clinics, but protection risks remain widespread. Access is volatile in crisis-affected areas.

One condition for progress is proximity. UNFPA and its partners support front-line health facilities and safe spaces, move services closer to camps and host communities, and deliver information and counselling through community networks so women know where help exists when movement is dangerous. Each month, UNFPA and its partners reach thousands with antenatal care, safe delivery, family planning and gender-based violence services, proof that an integrated model can function even as conflict and disaster persist. Yet if insecurity closes roads or limits access to pharmacies and health facilities, gains are at risk of quickly unravelling.