Responding to unmet food needs of displaced persons or refugees:

Abstract

This paper identifies two types of displaced persons in two different ecological zones in Cameroon as a result of two major causes; a poisonous lake gas explosion in the North West and the effects of a civil war in Chad on Kousseri town in North Cameroon. The displaced persons, through no fault of theirs had to look up to both international and local donor organizations for assistance. This paper addresses the usual unmet food needs, analyses some of the performances that often go wrong but which can be corrected. The paper points out that donor agencies and the host government played major roles in raising food, cash, etc. but regrets to note that unsurmountable logistical problems, improper choice and use of personnel with wider expertise to handle specialized problems, inexistent buffer stocks and non-involvement of the displaced persons in managing some of the problems hindered hard-generated resources from reaching most of the beneficiaries. Better performances lie in reducing dependency on continuous external supplies and also in the local hosts allowing room for small scale agro-pastoral productions which should satisfy and even improve on the unmet nutritional difficiencies and rations of the displaced persons.