KOLOFATA, Cameroon: Homeless and hungry, Fadi is a young widow from Cameroon who was forced by Boko Haram’s brutal insurgency to flee her village near the Nigerian border.
But despite all she has suffered, and even in the relative safety of a camp for displaced people, she does not have enough food.
“We just want to eat. If you can please help us,” begs the 17-year-old, after surviving Boko Haram’s violence in the Lake Chad region — the focus of a donor conference in Norway on Friday.
Fadi’s husband was murdered last year in a militant attack on their village, Grea, near Nigeria.
“They broke into our house, they killed him and they left,” she said, adding that she did not know why he had been executed. “After burying him, we fled.”
Like thousands of others, Fadi has found temporary shelter in a camp filled with shoddily-built straw shacks.
The dry season has dried up the rivers and children gathering at a camp well walk away with half-empty buckets. At the entrance of the camp in Kolofata town, a group of men gather together to share a single plate of cooked millet.
“We often go to bed with empty stomachs,” Fadi says.
Another woman at the camp, Mariam Malabba, is also hungry. “I want to eat!” she cries, nursing her child.
“Our food ration only includes millet. Fish or meat? No, no! Those are luxuries we cannot afford,” says Malabba, who fled her village after Boko Haram killed several of her relatives.
“It is hard to get enough to eat. Food is in very short supply,” says Oumarou Abba, who fled the village of Kerawa near the Nigerian border.
Just a few meters (yards) from the camp entrance, crowds gather as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) prepares a food distribution for 2,500 families.
It is the ICRC’s first such distribution in Kolofata, which has seen a dearth of humanitarian aid since the Boko Haram insurgency spilled over the border in 2014.
Security guards carrying metal detectors are deployed to ensure that no attacks are carried out, in an area hit by several suicide bombings in recent months.
A woman carrying a baby in a sling puts a 12-kilo (26-pound) sack of flour over her head as she picks up a bag packed with rice, beans and oil.
An older woman raises both hands to the sky, grateful for the handouts.
With his young daughter’s help, a man loads two sacks of rice and flour onto his motorbike. “We are happy with this help, it is the first time,” he says.
But others in the crowd are disappointed they have not received anything.
“We help the most vulnerable. We have limited resources,” says Bah Ibrahima of the ICRC.
“The needs are huge.”
The International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank has said that overall, the flashpoint Far North Region of Cameroon near Nigeria hosts some 1.6 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
The group also called on the international community to “find ways to improve overcrowded refugee camps and mitigate growing problems for the local population.”
More than 1,500 Cameroonian civilians, soldiers and police officers have been killed since a string of attacks blamed on Boko Haram began in the west African country in 2014.
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Cameroonians fleeing Boko Haram desperate for food
Cameroonians fleeing Boko Haram desperate for food
China FM tells EU diplomats not to blame Beijing for bloc’s problems
BEIJING: China’s foreign minister told his French and German counterparts that Beijing was not to blame for Europe’s economic and security problems as he pushed for more cooperation at a summit in Munich, a foreign ministry statement said Saturday.
Wang Yi made the comments at a meeting with France’s Jean-Noel Barrot and Germany’s Johann Wadephul on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
He sought to promote China as a reliable partner of the European Union at a time when the bloc is trying to reduce its dependence on both Beijing and an increasingly unpredictable Washington.
“China’s development is an opportunity for Europe, and Europe’s challenges do not come from China,” Wang said, according to the statement.
Warning that “unilateralism, protectionism, and power politics” were on the rise globally, he said he hoped Europe would “pursue a rational and pragmatic policy toward China.”
“The two sides are partners, not adversaries; interdependence is not a risk; intertwined interests are not a threat; and open cooperation will not harm security.”
The meeting came against the backdrop of trade tensions between the two giant economies and disputes over what the EU sees as China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The EU is seeking to cut its reliance on China for strategic goods like rare earths while also rebalancing a trade relationship that sees it run a large deficit with the world’s second-largest economy.
In recent years, the two sides have clashed over Chinese electric-vehicle exports, which threaten Europe’s car industry and which Brussels argues are based on unfair subsidies, and Chinese tariffs on EU goods ranging from cheese to cognac.
Wang urged Germany and France to help “give a clear direction for the development of China-Europe relations.”
In a separate meeting with Wadephul — also on Friday — Wang touted economic and trade cooperation as “the cornerstone of China-Germany ties,” according to a foreign ministry readout.
Wang also met Britain’s foreign minister Yvette Cooper, telling her that Beijing and London should “explore more potential for cooperation,” while the two sides also discussed Ukraine and Iran.
Wang Yi made the comments at a meeting with France’s Jean-Noel Barrot and Germany’s Johann Wadephul on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
He sought to promote China as a reliable partner of the European Union at a time when the bloc is trying to reduce its dependence on both Beijing and an increasingly unpredictable Washington.
“China’s development is an opportunity for Europe, and Europe’s challenges do not come from China,” Wang said, according to the statement.
Warning that “unilateralism, protectionism, and power politics” were on the rise globally, he said he hoped Europe would “pursue a rational and pragmatic policy toward China.”
“The two sides are partners, not adversaries; interdependence is not a risk; intertwined interests are not a threat; and open cooperation will not harm security.”
The meeting came against the backdrop of trade tensions between the two giant economies and disputes over what the EU sees as China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The EU is seeking to cut its reliance on China for strategic goods like rare earths while also rebalancing a trade relationship that sees it run a large deficit with the world’s second-largest economy.
In recent years, the two sides have clashed over Chinese electric-vehicle exports, which threaten Europe’s car industry and which Brussels argues are based on unfair subsidies, and Chinese tariffs on EU goods ranging from cheese to cognac.
Wang urged Germany and France to help “give a clear direction for the development of China-Europe relations.”
In a separate meeting with Wadephul — also on Friday — Wang touted economic and trade cooperation as “the cornerstone of China-Germany ties,” according to a foreign ministry readout.
Wang also met Britain’s foreign minister Yvette Cooper, telling her that Beijing and London should “explore more potential for cooperation,” while the two sides also discussed Ukraine and Iran.
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