Humanitarian Assistance

A refugee and her child receiving food assistance on World Food Day 2021 at the WFP warehouse in the eastern region of Cameroon.

Christelle Ngueajio USAID/Cameroon

The U.S. government is the lead provider of humanitarian assistance to Cameroon through activities funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. BHA provides food, health, water, shelter, and other life-saving services to approximately 1.4 million people every year: One million internally displaced people due to conflict/violence in the Far North, Northwest, and Southwest Regions, and 437,000 refugees from Nigeria and the Central African Republic (CAR).

About 15 percent of BHA’s budget enables the World Food Program (WFP) to address food insecurity in the Far North, Northwest, Southwest regions, and among CAR refugees in the East and Adamawa Regions. The WFP works closely with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization of Migration and other UN and NGOs to deliver food assistance in camps and also to host communities (to improve food security and maintain social cohesion) through a range of approaches including general food distribution, cash based transfers and livelihood activities.